World AIDS Day Finds Russia, Former Soviet Union in Grips of
时间：2019-01-31 作者：英语课 分类：VOA2004（下）--新闻盘点
By Bill Gasperini
United Nations health officials say Russia and other nations of the former Soviet 1 bloc 2 are confronting the world's fastest-growing epidemic 3 of HIV/AIDS. One decade ago, the countries of the former Soviet bloc had some of the lowest infection rates of HIV, the virus that causes the deadly AIDS disease.
Now, health officials say rates have skyrocketed to such an extent that the region leads the world in what has become an AIDS epidemic.
The organization that monitors the situation, UN/AIDS, estimates up to 1.8 million people in the region have the virus - approximately one percent of the population.
And, the rate of increase is enormous, with hundreds of thousands of people infected each year.
Most infections come from spiraling intravenous drug use by male addicts 4 using contaminated needles.
But that is changing. Officials say women now account for about one-third of Russian HIV infections, which means a sharp rise in the number of mothers who pass the virus on to their newborn babies.
Officials say that governments still do not understand the true scope of the problem or its long-term impact on social and economic development.
Dr. Akram Eltom is the Russia program coordinator 5 for the World Health Organization's HIV/AIDS program.
He says the aim is to work with the government to overcome misunderstandings about the problem and improve prevention.
"We believe advocacy is a gradual effort. We are here to support the government," he said. "To overcome, whether it is political convictions, social considerations, or economic ones, it will be a gradual effort."
Although there are some dire 6 predictions of greatly-increasing numbers of AIDS deaths in Russia within just a few years, the federal allocation to fight the disease is only $4.5 million a year.
Despite low funding, many prevention programs are in place. These include "harm reduction" measures such as needle exchange programs to keep drug addicts from sharing or using infected needles.
注释：
skyrocket 暴涨，猛涨
epidemic 流行病
approximately 大约
intravenous 静脉内的
contaminated 被污染（沾污）的
prevention 预防
gradual 逐步的
allocation 分配，配给
- Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
- Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。
- A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
- There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。
- That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
- The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。
- a unit for rehabilitating drug addicts 帮助吸毒者恢复正常生活的机构
- There is counseling to help Internet addicts?even online. 有咨询机构帮助网络沉迷者。 来自超越目标英语 第3册
- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
- How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？