【正文】 衛(wèi)生類 1 Better Control of TB Seen If a Faster Cure Is Found The World Health Organization1 estimates that about onethird of all people are infected with bacteria that cause tuberculosis . Most times, the infection remains inactive. But each year about eight million people develop active cases of TB, usually in their lungs. Two million people die of of it. The disease has increased with the spread of AIDS and drugresistant forms of tuberculosis. Current treatments take at least six months. People have to take a bination of several antibiotic drugs daily. But many people stop as soon as they feel better. Doing that can lead to an infection that resists treatment. Public health experts agree that a fasteracting cure for tuberculosis would be more effective. Now a study estimates just how effective it might be. A professor of international health at Harvard University2 led the study. Joshua Salomon says a shorter treatment program would likely mean not just more patients cured. It would also mean fewer infectious patients who can pass on their infection to others. The researchers developed a mathematical model to examine the effects of a twomonth treatment plan. They tested the model with current TB conditions in Southeast Asia. The scientists found that a twomonth treatment could prevent about twenty percent of new cases. And it might prevent about twentyfive percent of TB deaths. The model shows that these reductions would take place between two thousand twelve and two thousand thirty. That is, if a faster cure is developed and in wide use by two thousand twelve. The World Health Organization reductions the DOTS3 program in nieen niy. DOTS is Directly Observed Treatment, Shortcourse. Health workers watch tuberculosis patients take their daily pills to make sure they continue treatment. Earlier this year, an international partnership of anizations announced a plan to expand the DOTS program. The tenyear plan also aims to finance research into new TB drugs. The four most mon drugs used now are more than forty years old. The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development4 says its longterm goal is a treatment that could work in as few as ten doses. 2 Influenza （新增） Influenza has been with us a long time. According to some Greek writers on medical history, the outbreak of 412 . was of influenza. The same has been suggested of the sickness that swept through the Greek army attacking Syracuse in 395 . Flu is a disease that moves most quickly among people living in crowded conditions, hence, it is likely to attack armies. During the nieenth century there were five widespread outbreaks of influenza. The last of the five happened in 1889 and marked the beginning of the story of influenza in our time. Like the recent outbreak, it started in Asia. For more than forty years before that outbreak, influenza had steadily decreased and was believed to be dying out. A new group of outbreaks was introduced by the great outbreak of 18891890 and for the next quarter of a century flu remained a constant threat. In April 918 flu broke among American troops stationed in France. It quickly spread through all the armies but caused relatively few deaths. Four months later, however, a second outbreak started which proved to be a killer. It killed not only the old and already sick but also healthy young adults. It went through every country in the world, only a few distant islands in the South Atlantic and the Pacific remaining untouched. It brought the life of whole countries stopping, food supplies stopped and work loss was very great. Before the great outbreak ended, it had killed at least 15 million people. Thereafter there have been several great outbreaks throughout the world. It is thus clear that influenza is a terrible infection that we have to pay more attention to. 3 One Good Reason to Let Smallpox Live It’s now a fair bet that we will never see the total extinction of the smallpox virus. The idea was to cap the glorious achievement of 1980, when smallpox was eradicated in the wild, by destroying the killer virus in the last two labs that are supposed to have it— one in the US and one in Russia. If smallpox had truly gone from the pla, what point was there in keeping these reserves? in reality, of course, it was naive to imagine that everyone would let go of such a potential weapon. Undoubtedly several nations still have a few much vials. And the last “official” stocks of lice virus bred mistrust of the US and Russia, for no obvious gain. Now American researchers have found an animal model of the human disease, opening the way for tests on new treatments and vaccines. So one again there’s a good reason to keep the virus— just in case the disease puts in a reappearance. How do we_deal with the mistrust of the US and Russia? Simple Keep the virus under international auspices in a wellguarded UN laboratory that’s open to all countries. The US will object, of course, just as it rejects a multilateral approach to just about everything. But it doesn’t mean the idea is wrong. If the virus is useful, then let’s make it the servant of all humanity— not just a part of it. 4 Diet, Alcohol Linked to Nearly One Third of Cancers Diet is second only to tobacco as a leading cause of cancer and, along with alcohol, is responsible for nearly one third of cases of the disease in developed countries, a leading researcher said on Tuesday. Dr. Tim Key, of the University of Oxford, told a cancer conference that scientists are still discovering how certain foods contribute to cancer,but they know that diet, alcohol and obesity . play a major role. “Five percent of cancers could be avoided if nobody was obese,” he said. While tobacco is blinked to about 30 percent of cancer cases, diet is involved in an estimated 25 percent and alcoho