VOA慢速英语2012 Health Report - What Happens When TB Becomes Untreatable?

Health Report - What Happens When TB Becomes Untreatable?

健康报道 - 抗药性肺结核病蔓延

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。

In December, doctors in Mumbai, India, reported about a group of patients with what they called "totally drug-resistant" tuberculosis 1. Indian health officials have been investigating these cases. But there have been reports of untreatable cases of TB in the past. Doctors reported fifteen patients in Iran in two thousand nine and two patients in Italy in two thousand seven.

12月，印度孟买的医生报告了一组他们所谓的“完全抗药性”肺结核病人。印度卫生官员一直在调查这些病例。但过去也出现过无法治疗的肺结核病例报告。2009年伊朗报告了15名病人，2007年意大利报告了2名病人。

Tuberculosis is a bacterial 2 disease that usually targets the lungs. It causes an estimated five thousand deaths each day, or about two million a year.

结核病是一种目标通常为肺的细菌性疾病。每天预计会导致5000人死亡，或大约200万每年。

TB can be spread through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes or even speaks.

结核病可以在感染人群咳嗽、打喷嚏甚至说话时通过空气传播。

Some forms of TB bacteria no longer react to one or more of the antibiotics 3 commonly used to cure the disease. These are known as drug-resistant strains. Some resist even more drugs. The World Health Organization says sixty-nine countries have reported cases of "extensively drug-resistant" tuberculosis. The WHO says at least twenty-five thousand such cases are reported worldwide every year.

某些形式的结核病菌已经对通常用来治疗这种疾病的一种或多种抗生素不再发生反应，这被称为“耐药菌株”。一些病菌甚至可以抵抗更多药物。世界卫生组织表示，已经有69个国家报告了“广泛耐药性”的结核病。世界卫生组织称每年全球范围内至少有2500例这样的病例报告。

The agency's director-general, Dr. Margaret Chan, is concerned about the spread of drug-resistant TB.

该机构总干事陈冯富珍博士对耐药性结核病的蔓延很是担忧。

MARGARET CHAN: "Call it what you may, a time bomb or a powder keg. Any way you look at it, this is a potentially explosive situation."

陈冯富珍：“你可以称之为时间炸弹或火药桶。不管你怎么看，这都是一种潜在爆炸性局势。”

Officials say drug-resistant TB has been a growing problem in countries like India and China. In many cases, doctors misdiagnose patients or give them the wrong treatment or not enough treatment. Misuse 4 of these antibiotics increases the danger that the bacteria will develop resistance to them.

有关官员表示，耐药性结核病已经成为印度和中国等国家日益严重的问题。在许多情况下，医生会误诊患者，或对患者错误治疗，或者治疗不当。滥用抗生素增加了细菌对这些抗生素产生耐药性的风险。

Neeraj Mistry is a public health doctor. He says surveys show that very few Indian doctors are treating TB patients with the right drugs for the right length of time. Another problem is that patients may not take all of their medicine.

Neeraj Mistry是一名公共卫生医生。他说，调查表明，很少有印度医生针对患病时间长短采用正确的药物来治疗结核病患者。另一个问题是，病人可能没有服用医生所开的全部药物。

NEERAJ MISTRY: "The emergence 5 of totally-resistant TB is a result of failed public health intervention 6 strategies. When we deliver ineffective treatment regimens and when we don't have full adherence 7 and compliance 8 to treatment, it enables the emergence of resistance within the individual."

NEERAJ MISTRY：“完全抗药性结核病的出现是公共卫生干预策略失败的结果。当我们提供无效的治疗方案，当我们没有完全遵守或配合治疗，就会使得个体抗药性的出现成为可能。”

The WHO says new, stronger TB drugs could be available by the end of this year or early twenty-thirteen.

世界卫生组织表示，今年年底或2013年新的更强的抗结核病药物可能会投入使用。

Researchers are also working on vaccines 10 to prevent the disease. Dr. Ann Ginsberg works at the Aeras Global TB Vaccine 9 Foundation. She says the development process takes a long time, partly because people often do not get sick for years after getting infected with TB.

研究人员还致力于预防这种疾病的疫苗。Ann Ginsberg博士在AERAS肺结核疫苗基金会工作。她表示疫苗开发过程需要很长时间，部分原因是因为人们感染肺结核多年后才会发病。

ANN GINSBERG: "So when you do a vaccine trial, you have to vaccinate 11 people and watch them for years."

ANN GINSBERG：“所以当你进行疫苗试验时，你必须对人们进行疫苗接种并观察多年。”

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. I'm Bob Doughty 12.

___

Contributing: Vidushi Sinha