新检测方法或对彻底根除疟疾起到决定性作用

新检测方法或对彻底根除疟疾起到决定性作用

Fatuma Chaunga, a mother of two,lives in the coastal 1 region of Likoni in Mombasa.Two years ago, most of Chaunga's income from selling french fries and deep-fried buns was spent on hospital bills to treat malaria 2.

法提玛·查昂格是两个孩子的母亲,她住在蒙巴萨里柯尼的沿海地区。2年前,查昂格售卖法国薯条及油炸面包圈所得的大部分收入都花在医院治疗疟疾的账单上。

Mombasa is a malaria-prone region. More than 60 percent of the population is at risk of malaria in Kenya, where almost 36,000 children die from the disease each year.

蒙巴萨是疟疾的肆虐地区。肯尼亚超过60%的人口有患疟疾的危险,每年这种疾病造成近36000名儿童死亡。

A non-governmental organization called "Population Services Kenya" distributes insecticide-treated bed nets to pregnant mothers and mothers with children under one year old.Chaunga was one of the beneficiaries.

一个名为“肯尼亚人口服务”的非政府组织为孕妇和一岁以下儿童的母亲分发用杀虫剂处理过的蚊帐。查昂格是其中一名受益者。

“If I do not use the net, my children will get malaria, and I will have to go to hospital or use herbal medicine.That is before I knew of MRDT. Now that I know of it, I see the importance of using the net so as to save on costs of going for treatment and use the little money I have to sustain my family.”

“如果我不使用蚊帐,我的孩子们患上疟疾,我就得送他们去医院或使用草药。这些都是在我知道MRDT,即疟疾快速诊断测试之前的事情。现在的我已经认识到使用蚊帐的重要性,这样能省下治疗费用而后我能用这微薄的收入支持我的家庭。”

The MRDT that Chaunga mentions is the Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test. In 2010, the World Health Organization recommended every suspected malaria case be confirmed by parasitological testing. PS Kenya provides the test to more than 4,000 public health facilities.

查昂格提到的MRDT是疟疾快速诊断测试。2010年,世界卫生组织建议每个疟疾疑似病人通过寄生虫检测进行证实。肯尼亚超过4000个公共卫生设施都提供这样的测试。

The MRDT gives results in 20 minutes and costs 1, which is affordable 3 even in rural communities.

疟疾快速诊断测试不到20分钟内就会有结果而且费用只要1美元,即使在偏远的社区也能够负担得起。

Dr.Dismas Osoro said it has helped reduce the abuse of antibiotics 4.

狄斯马斯·奥斯洛医生表示这项测试已帮助减少抗生素的滥用。

“Because earlier people were just taking anti-malarials without a test. This time we have got the importance of it. We test and dispense 5 anti-malarials, so the reckless use of anti-malarial drugs has been controlled.”

“因为早先人们只是在未进行测试的情况下服用抗疟疾药物。这次我们意识到测试的重要性。我们测试后分发抗疟疾药,因此抗疟疾药物不计后果的使用已经得到控制。”

The World Health Organization estimates there were 198 million cases of malaria in 2013, which led to 584,000 deaths world-wide,most of them in Africa among children under the age of five.

世界卫生组织估计2013年有1.98亿疟疾病人,世界范围内584000人死亡,其中大多数是非洲5岁以下的儿童。

That makes mosquito-net distribution in malaria-endemic regions crucial.

这就使得蚊帐在疟疾流行地区的分配显得至关重要。

But,according to PS Kenya regional programs coordinator 6 James Makiri, the biggest challenge is changing mindsets.

但是肯尼亚地区项目协调员詹姆斯·马克莱莱表示最大的难题是观念的转变。

“People tend to sleep under the net during the rainy season. But during the dry season, when it is hot, they do not sleep under net because it is too hot. So what we are trying to do is encourage people to sleep under net every time of the year.”

“人们喜欢在雨季使用蚊帐。但在旱季天气炎热时,他们就不愿意用,因为它太热了。所以我们正尝试鼓励人们一年当中每天都使用蚊帐。”

For 30 years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has collaborated 7 with the Kenya Medical Research Institute to fight malaria. This collaboration 8 is developing a vaccine 9 being tested on 16,000 children.

30年来,美国疾病控制和预防中心一直与肯尼亚医疗研究机构合作对抗疟疾。这次合作研发的一种疫苗即将对16000名儿童进行测试。

Professor Francis Kimani said the results have been promising-but it's only part of a multi-pronged effort.

弗朗西斯·柯马尼教授表示结果带给人希望-但仍需要很多努力。

“We are coming up with newer vector control methods. We are coming up with new drugs. We are monitoring the drugs that are in use to make sure that they work well and users use them well.And also, we are coming up with newer strategies to protect the host. And when you do all those things in an integrated fashion we are hoping that at the end of the day we will win against Malaria.”

“我们正在研究新的矢量控制方法。我们正在研发新药。我们监测药物以确保起到很好的效果,而且患者们也能够很好的使用。而且,我们正研究新的策略保护病人。当你以这样的整合方式做所有这些时我们希望在终有一天我们会战胜疟疾。”

Chaunga said she hopes that more and more people will embrace mosquito nets and embrace modern methods of testing for malaria-further bringing down mortality rates that WHO says are at 47 percent globally and 54 percent in Africa.

查昂格表示她希望越来越多的人接受蚊帐及现代检测方法进一步降低疟疾病人的死亡率,世卫组织表示全球占47%而非洲是54%。