VOA慢速英语2012 TECHNOLOGY REPORT - Mobile Phones Could Help Efforts to End Malaria

TECHNOLOGY REPORT - Mobile Phones Could Help Efforts to End Malaria 1

科技报道 - 手机可能有助于终结疟疾

From VOA Learning English, this is the TECHNOLOGY REPORT in Special English.

这里是美国之音慢速英语科技报道。

Researchers are studying the use of mobile phones to document the spread of malaria. The study is part of an effort to stop or control the disease.

研究人员正在研究利用手机来记录疟疾的传播。该研究是终结或控制疟疾的努力的一部分。

The World Health Organization says malaria mortality rates have fallen by twenty-five percent since two thousand. Yet the disease killed an estimated six hundred fifty-five thousand people in twenty-ten.

世卫组织表示，自2000年以来，疟疾死亡率已经下降了25%。然而2010年估计有65.5万人被疟疾夺去了生命。

Scientists say malaria-carrying mosquitoes cannot travel far on their own. But the insects can, and do, catch rides in the belongings 2 of people who travel. Malaria also can be spread by people who come from an area with large numbers of malaria cases. They may show no signs of having the disease themselves.

科学家称，携带疟疾的蚊子靠自身力量飞不了多远，但它可以依附在旅行者的行李上传播。来自有大量疟疾病例地区的人也可以传播疟疾，他们自身可能并没有患病的症状。

That is what Harvard University researchers discovered in Kenya. They found that the disease mainly spreads east from the country’s Lake Victoria area with people who travel to the capital, Nairobi.

这就是哈佛大学的研究人员在肯尼亚的发现。他们发现疟疾主要通过前往首都内罗毕的人们从维多利亚湖地区向东传播。

Researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health reported the finding. It was based on the mobile phone records of fifteen million Kenyans.

哈佛大学公共卫生学院的研究人员报告了这一结论，该结论是基于1500万肯尼亚人的手机通话记录而得出的。

Caroline Buckee is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard school. She says one of the first steps in stopping malaria is to learn how human travel might be adding to its spread. She says it has been difficult to follow large population movements with methods like government census 3 records.

卡洛琳·巴基（Caroline Buckee）是哈佛大学一名流行病学助理教授。她表示，终结疟疾的首要步骤之一就是了解人类旅行会如何增加其传播。她说用人口普查记录之类的方法很难跟踪大规模的人口流动。

“But mobile phones offer a really unique way, on an unprecedented 4 scale, to understand how a whole population is moving around.”

“但手机提供了一种独特方式来了解人口如何以前所未有的规模进行流动。”

In Kenya, the researchers estimated the distance and length of each phone user’s trip away from home. This information was based on messages to and from the mobile phone carrier’s twelve thousand transmission towers.

在肯尼亚，研究人员估算了每位手机用户的行程离家的距离。这些数据是基于手机运营商1.2万个发射塔接收和发送的信息得出的。

The researchers then compared that information to a map showing reports of malaria in different parts of the country. The researchers estimated each user’s probability of being infected in a given area. They also estimated the likelihood that a visitor to that area would become infected.

研究人员随后将这些数据与该国不同地区疟疾报告的地图进行对比。他们估算出每个用户在某个地区感染的可能性，还估算出游客到该地区被感染的可能性。

The result was a picture showing malaria transmission routes starting in Lake Victoria. Caroline Buckee says such evidence could influence malaria control efforts.

研究结果显示疟疾传播途径始于维多利亚湖。巴基表示，这些证据能够影响疟疾的控制措施。

“One thing that you could consider is sending text messages to people coming to high risk cell towers, for example, reminding them to use a bed net. And I think those types of approaches are simple but they would hopefully target people who are asymptomatic and unaware 5 that they are carrying parasites 6.”

“可以考虑做一件事，就是给那些到高风险地区的人发送短信，例如提醒他们使用蚊帐。我认为这类手段很简单，但它们有望能够直接抵达那些没有症状且没有意识到自己携带了寄生虫的人群。”

She says researchers are investigating using mobile phone records in other areas to help identify malaria transmission routes. A report on the study was published in the Journal Science.

她说，研究人员正在研究利用其它地区的手机通话记录帮助确定疟疾传播途径。关于该研究的报告发表在《科学》杂志上。

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Contributing: June Simms and Jessica Berman