This is the VOA Special English Health Report , from http://voaspecialenglish.com | http://facebook.com/voalearningenglish
The United States
government recently announced a major education and research campaign against
Alzheimer's disease. The brain-wasting disease has no cure. The plan includes
more efforts to develop drugs to prevent it. In the United States, more than
five million people have Alzheimer's or some other form of dementia. As the
population gets older, the number is expected to reach almost eight million by
twenty-thirty. By then, experts say Alzheimer's and other dementia disorders
could affect as many as sixty-six million people worldwide.The national
Alzheimer's plan calls on scientists to develop treatments to prevent the
disease by twenty twenty-five. Officials at the National Institutes of Health
have promised fifty million dollars to help support that effort. NIH held a
conference of the nation's top Alzheimer's researchers where NIH Director
Francis Collins discussed the plan. He said that researchers have learned more
about the disease in the past few years than probably ever before.Early next
year, scientists at the Banner Alzheimer's Institute in Arizona plan to begin
human testing of an experimental drug. The drug is called crenezumab, and the
hope is it will prevent Alzheimer's. The study will involve members of a large
extended family living in villages in the Medellin area in Colombia. Some of the
family members have a rare genetic disorder that causes them to get early-onset
Alzheimer's. They begin to show signs of mental loss in their mid-forties and
fully develop the disease by their early fifties.Three hundred people have
agreed to be in the study. One-third of them will receive crenezumab. The others
will be given a placebo, a pill that does not contain any drug. They will not
know if they have been given the drug or the placebo. The study will also
include a smaller number of people in the United States.Pierre Tariot will help
lead the study, known as a human trial. He says all of the people have been
informed that the drug might not work or that they might receive a placebo. Mr.
Tariot says the people still wanted to be in the study because the disease has
affected every generation for centuries.Scientists hope that if the drug works
in those facing early-onset Alzheimer's, then it might also help older
adults.The study in Colombia could take as long as five years, but researchers
believe they could get results in two years. For VOA Special English, I'm I'm
Carolyn Presutti.(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 23May2012)
원문출처 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGBwrcU6Zpg&feature=youtube_gdata
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