環(huán)球英語 — 161：Important Health Developments

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Thank you for joining us for today’s Spotlight. I’m Rebekah Schipper.

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And I’m Liz Waid. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

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If you had to vote, what would you vote for?

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Would you vote for computers? Or would you vote for antibiotic medicine?

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Would you vote for vaccines? Or would you vote for DNA?

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Well, all of the votes are in! And sanitation wins the prize. People voted for sanitation as the best medical, or health development in over one hundred years.

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Today’s Spotlight is on sanitation and other important medical developments. Hear why the majority of people voted for sanitation.

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In January 2007 the British Medical Journal asked this question: What has been the greatest medical development in the last one hundred sixty-six [166] years? The researchers with the Medical Journal asked eleven thousand [11,000] people around the world to answer this question. There were fifteen [15] medical developments to choose from.

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Here are the fifteen medical developments briefly explained.

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Anaesthesia. This chemical substance can greatly reduce pain during surgery when a doctor must cut into your body.

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Antibiotics. This medical drug protects people from diseases caused by bacteria. It can protect people against infection. The most famous antibiotic is penicillin.

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Chlorpromazin. This medicine was the first drug to help people with mental diseases. It helps to calm people.

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Computers. These machines help scientists to learn many new things about the human body. Most hospitals use many different kinds of computers to help patients.

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DNA. This is the genetic material in your body. Changes in DNA can cause disease. Scientists now understand a lot about DNA. It helps them to treat and prevent disease.

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Evidence based medicine. This describes how many doctors now use medically-based research to treat their patients. Scientists learn new things every day. Doctors can use this information to better perform their jobs.

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The Germ Theory. This theory states that small micro-organisms in the body cause disease. Identifying particular organisms help doctors treat particular diseases. Understanding the germ theory helps people understand how diseases spread from person to person.

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Imaging. X-ray images help doctors see inside of the body. These pictures show a person’s bones and organs.

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Immunology. This is the study of the body’s defense system, how the body fights disease.

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Oral rehydration therapy. This simple mix of water, salt, and sugar has saved the lives of millions of people. It can return the body’s fluids to a normal balance. This is especially important for people suffering from cholera and diarrhoea.

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The Pill. This medicine puts chemical hormones into a woman’s body. It can help prevent her from becoming pregnant until she wants to become pregnant.

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Risks of Smoking. Understanding these risks has saved many lives. There are many harmful chemicals in cigarettes. They can cause cancer. Knowing the risks can help people stop smoking.

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Tissue Culture. Scientists can grow human tissue, or cells, in a container. They can test new medicine and treatments on these tissues. This way, scientists do not have to test people.

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Vaccines. A vaccine contains a small amount of a virus. Doctors can inject this virus into a person. A person’s defence system will attack the virus. It will produce new cells that will recognize the virus. If a person’s body becomes infected with the virus, the person will not get sick. Defence cells will attack the virus. Common vaccines are the polio vaccine and the small pox vaccine.

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Sanitation. Sanitation is the clearing of solid human waste. It is also the measures taken to make sure things are clean. This includes chemicals and soaps people can use to wash surfaces and their bodies. Sanitation protects against the spread of disease.

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About fifteen [15] percent of the people questioned by the British Medical Journal voted for sanitation. These people believe that sanitation is the best medical development in over one hundred [100] years. But why?

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Well, during the nineteenth [19th] century many people in Europe were dying of cholera. No one knew how cholera spread. Then one day a man named John Snow turned off a particular water pump in London. Many people got their water from this pump. It was not a very clean area. But, shutting off the pump stopped the spread of cholera in that area.

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Soon people began to create systems through cities. One system would bring clean water into peoples’ homes through pipes. And another system would take dirty, waste-filled water out. In this way, clean and dirty water did not mix. This idea spread through parts of Europe. And, deaths from cholera and diarrhoea dropped by twelve [12] percent! Now people use these systems all over the world.

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Cleanliness can encourage health. Now along with water systems, chemicals also exist. These chemicals can sanitize, or clean surfaces. Sanitizing kills micro-organisms that cause disease. Killing them stops them from spreading. This can help prevent disease.

Many people understand the importance of sanitation. Sanitation has saved millions of lives around the world. And that is why the majority of people voted for it as the best medical development. But, there are areas that still lack good sanitation. Clean and dirty water mix. And many people do not understand the importance of cleaning surfaces, food, and their hands. In these areas there are high rates of disease. So, many people in the world continue to suffer from preventable diseases.

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There are many groups that work in these areas. These groups are trying to bring sanitation to the people who most need it. For example, the United Nations does sanitation work all over the world, including Bangladesh. Each year parts of Bangladesh experience flooding. The water carries disease. So, groups with the UN teach people the importance of keeping things clean. They teach people how to repair their clean water pumps. Clean water pumps keep people from using dirty river water for drinking.

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The UN also works to clean water wells. Sometimes the wells fill with dirty flood water. So then the UN provides clean water. Because of work like this, people understand that clean and dirty water should never mix. The more people who understand this, the less disease there will be. All over the world groups like the UN work to provide sanitation to the people who most need it.

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Many people understand the importance of sanitation. They can easily see how sanitation has improved their lives. That may be why many people voted for sanitation as the most important medical development. It is easy to see the difference between areas with good sanitation and areas with bad sanitation. But good sanitation is not something that everyone everywhere enjoys - yet. Hopefully, one day, everyone will be able to live in an area with good sanitation.