战胜疟疾(1) [慢速VOA080219]

A Success Story for Malaria Control (1/2)

Every year, malaria sickens about five hundred million people. More than one million of them die, mostly young children and pregnant women in Africa. For several years in sub-Saharan Africa, the Global Fund and other groups have been paying for bed nets treated with long-lasting insect poison. Malaria is spread by mosquito bites. The groups have also invested in antimalaria drugs for A.C.T., artemisinin-based combination therapy.

Recently, a team from the World Health Organization visited Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia. These countries were the first to distribute the bed nets and medicine. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria requested a study to see if the interventions were helping.

The researchers found that the answer is yes. They looked at records of children under five. They found that malaria deaths fell by sixty-six percent in Rwanda between two thousand five and two thousand seven. Deaths fell by fifty-one percent in Ethiopia, thirty-four percent in Ghana and thirty-three percent in Zambia.

The team reported that limited supplies of bed nets could help explain the more limited effects in Zambia and Ghana. But the findings in Ghana were more difficult to explain, because deaths from causes other than malaria fell more sharply.

每年，约有五百万人患上疟疾。他们当中有超过100万人死亡，大多数是非洲的儿童和孕妇。许多年来，在撒哈拉沙漠以南的非洲地区，一直由全球基金和其他组织出资提供那些长效杀虫剂处理过的蚊帐。疟疾经由蚊子叮咬传播。这些组织也投资于抗疟疾药物开发，基于青蒿素的组合疗法。

最近，一个由世界卫生组织派出的小组走访了埃塞俄比亚，加纳，卢旺达和赞比亚。这些国家是最先分发床帐和药物国家。全球抗击艾滋病、结核和疟疾基金要求进行一项研究以确定这些干预是否有益。

研究者发现答案是肯定的。他们查看了五岁以下儿童的记录。他们发现在2005年和2007年间卢旺达的疟疾死亡下降了66％。埃塞俄比亚死亡数下降了51％，加纳为34％，赞比亚为33％。

该小组的报告指出有限的蚊帐供应可以解释在赞比亚和加纳效果有限的原因。但是在加纳的发现更难以解释，因为除疟疾之外由其他原因导致的死亡降低的更为显著。