This is the VOA Special English Health Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.com | http://facebook.com/voalearningenglish
Each year an
estimated one hundred six million people get infected with gonorrhea. This
sexually transmitted disease is getting harder and harder to treat. The World
Health Organization says gonorrhea is increasingly resistant to antibiotics. The
WHO warns that there are few treatment options available, and that the world is
running out of ways to cure it. Manjula Lusti-Narasimhan is a scientist at the
WHO. She explains what could happen if this bacterial disease becomes
untreatable: For men and women of reproductive age, they could become infertile.
For women who are pregnant, they could have ectopic pregnancies or spontaneous
abortions that could increase maternal deaths. And for infants born to these
women with untreated gonorrhea, over half of them develop severe eye infections
which can lead to blindness. Gonorrhea is one of four major sexually transmitted
infections that can be cured. The other three are chlamydial infection, syphilis
and chancroid. But the organism that causes gonococcal infections has developed
resistance to almost every class of antibiotic that exists. Resistance is caused
by the overuse of antibiotics and the use of poor quality antibiotics. It also
results from natural genetic changes, or mutations, within disease organisms.
The WHO says it does not know the extent of the resistance worldwide. This is
because of a lack of good information in many countries and a lack of research.
But it says cases of resistance to treatment are already being reported in
several countries. These include Australia, France, Japan, Norway, Sweden and
Britain.The WHO is calling for smarter use of antibiotics and more research into
new ways to treat the infections. Dr. Lusti-Marasimhan says there is no current
research into new drug treatments for gonorrhea. She says, "We have no plan B
right now." She says curing the disease is no longer as simple as taking a pill.
As she puts it, "We are in a state right now where in so many places this
organism is rapidly developing resistance. So we do need to start looking into
the research."The WHO is calling for urgent action to prevent the spread of
untreatable gonorrhea. A new global action plan calls for increased monitoring
and reporting of resistant strains of the disease. The plan also calls for
better efforts to prevent, diagnose and control the infections. For VOA Special
English, I'm Alex Villarreal. You can find links to more information about
gonorrhea at voaspecialenglish.com. (Adapted from a radio program broadcast
13Jun2012)
원문출처 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hhD8ULEjNw&feature=youtube_gdata
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