VOA常速英语2014--新药物标签有助于孕妇和哺乳妇女

New Drug Labels to Aid Pregnant, Nursing Women 新药物标签有助于孕妇和哺乳妇女

Women and doctors around the world soon will have clearer information on prescription 1 medicines and how they impact fertility, a fetus 2 and a baby that is nursing.

In the United States, women take between three and five prescription drugs during their pregnancy 3, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Other women on prescription drugs want to breastfeed their babies. Millions of other women are trying to conceive.

食品与药品管理局称在美国，女性在孕期会服用三到四种处方药，其他的女性服用处方药是想给宝宝喂奶，另外数百万女性服药是希望能怀孕。

While the drugs might be needed to control anything from high blood pressure to mental illness, they might harm a developing fetus or a nursing baby.

虽然服用这些药物是为了控制高血压和心理疾病等问题，但这些药物可能会对正在发育的胎儿或处于哺乳期的婴儿有害处。

Until now, a grading system classified drugs with letters — A, B , C, D and X, with A being the least risky 4, X being the most. But Dr. Edward McCabe, medical director of the March of Dimes 5, a group that works to reduce birth defects and pre-term births, said the system "was not informing either the consumers or professionals."

到目前为止，一个分级系统用字母A、B、C、D和X来将药物分级，A表示危险最低，X是危险最高的。但畸形儿基金会药品主任爱德华·麦凯布博士说这种分级令人迷惑，称该系统“既不能给消费者也不能给专业人士提供有效信息。”

Abilify, a drug used to help people with bipolar disorder 6, is a grade C drug, but its container doesn't say this, and there are no studies in humans that show what effect this drug might have on a fetus or a nursing baby.

用来治疗躁郁症的阿立哌唑被划为C类药物，但其包装上没有标明这类信息，也没有做过人体研究表明这种药物对胎儿或哺乳期婴儿有什么影响。

In an online press release, the FDA said the five-letter system would be replaced by new labels with more detailed 7, up-to-date information so doctors can help their patients make better choices about the risks of certain drugs before and during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.

食品与药物管理局在互联网上发布信息，称这个五字母系统将被新标签所取代，这些新标签将提供更详细、更新的信息，这样医生就能帮助患者在了解一定药物在怀孕前后和哺乳期的危险后作出更好的选择。

McCabe said he that welcomed the FDA's new ruling but that what's really needed are more clinical trials and more research.

麦凯布说他对食品与药物管理局的新规定表示欢迎，但真正需要的是更多临床试验和更多的研究。

"We need to recognize that research benefits individuals. Not doing research on pregnant women, women of childbearing age, does a disservice to them," he said. "There is a risk of not knowing information and we need to work and see how we can do this safely, but then once we’ve determined 8 that it is safe, if a drug is being used in pregnant women, we should be studying it."

“我们需要认识到这些研究能有助于个人，而不对孕妇、育龄妇女做研究则会有害她们。不了解情况就存在风险，我们需要努力工作看如何能保证安全，但一旦我们能断定药物是安全的，如果一种药物是给孕妇用的，我们应该对药物进行研究。”

McCabe said that for many drugs, people lack the information they need to make good choices.

麦凯布博士说对很多药物来说，我们并不具备做出最佳选择所应具备的的信息。