VOA慢速英语:People With Chronic Hepatitis B Often Do Not Know It

Today we answer a question. Vu Quang Hien from Vietnam wants to know more about hepatitis B. Hepatitis is the name for a group of viral infections that attack the liver. These are called A, B, C and so on.
今天，我们回答来自越南的Vu Quang Hien想知道的关于乙肝的问题。肝炎是以侵袭肝脏的一组病毒感染命名。他们称之为A型（甲肝），B型（乙肝），C型（丙肝）等等。

An estimated two billion people are infected with hepatitis B. The rates are highest in China and other parts of Asia. The World Health Organization says most of these infections happen during childhood.
估计有20亿人感染上乙肝。这个感染率在中国和亚洲其他地区最高。世界卫生组织称大部分是在小时候就感染了。

Hepatitis B is spread through contact with infected blood or other body fluids. Mothers can infect babies at birth. Unsafe injections and sexual contact can also spread the virus. Experts say it can survive outside the body for at least a week.
乙肝是通过与受感染血液或其他体液的接触进行传播。妈妈们可能在婴儿出生时就传染给婴儿。不安全的注射和性接触也会传播病毒。专家称，病毒可以在体外存活至少一周的时间。

There are two forms of hepatitis B -- acute and chronic. Acute cases last for several weeks, although recovery can take months. Chronic cases can lead to death from cirrhosis or scarring of the liver and liver cancer.
乙肝有两种形式——急性和慢性。急性乙肝会持续几周，尽管它的恢复要花几个月。慢性乙肝会由于肝硬化或肝结疤和肝癌导致死亡。

Yet people with long-term liver infections can live for years and not even know they are infected. The ones most likely to develop chronic hepatitis B are young children.
然而，肝脏长期受感染的人会存活好几年，甚至不知道自己受感染。最有可能患上慢性乙型肝炎的人群是青少年。

In the United States, experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urge medical providers to test Asian-American patients.
美国疾病控制与预防中心的专家强烈要求医疗人员检查亚裔美国患者。

DR. JOHN WARD: "The bottom line -- since most people of Asian heritage came to the US from endemic countries or were born to parents from these countries, they should be screened for chronic hepatitis B."
约翰沃德博士：“归根到底——由于美国人中大部分亚太裔都来自地方性疾病的国家，或他们的父母是来自这些国家，所以他们必须接受慢性乙型肝炎的检查。”

For acute hepatitis B, patients may receive care to replace lost fluids, but there are no treatments. Doctors can treat chronic cases with interferon and antiviral drugs. But these medicines cost too much for most of the world's poor.
对于急性乙肝，患者可以通过进行照顾取代流失的体液，但是无法治愈。医生可以用干扰素和抗病毒药治疗慢性乙肝。但是这些药对于世界上大部分贫穷人来说太昂贵了。

A vaccine to prevent hepatitis B has been available for thirty years. The researcher who discovered this vaccine -- and hepatitis B itself -- was an American named Baruch Blumberg. Dr. Blumberg also showed that the virus could cause liver cancer.
预防乙肝的疫苗已经存在30年的时间。发明这种疫苗和发现乙肝的研究人员是一名叫做巴鲁克．布伦博格的美国人。布伦博格博士还表明病毒会引起肝癌。

He and another researcher at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Irving Millman, invented the vaccine in nineteen sixty-nine. But Dr. Blumberg said it took some time to find a drug company willing to produce it.
他和另一名研究人员Irving Millman于1969年在费城福克斯詹士癌症中心发明这种疫苗。但是布伦博格博士称找到一个愿意生产这种药品的公司花了不少时间。

He first became interested in studying infectious disease when he volunteered in Surinam during his medical training.
当他进行医学培训时自愿前往苏里南，这是他首次对传染病研究感兴趣。

His discoveries with hepatitis B saved many lives and earned him a Nobel Prize in medicine. But he also had other interests -- including the search for life in outer space.
他有关乙肝的发现拯救了很多人的生命，并使他获得诺贝尔医学奖。不过他还有其他兴趣——包括寻找太空中的生命。

In the late nineties, he helped launch the Astrobiology Institute at NASA. He was at a space agency conference in California in April when he died, apparently of a heart attack. Baruch Blumberg was eighty-five years old.
20世纪末，他帮助美国航太总署（NASA）建立天文生物研究所。4月他在加尼福利亚参加太空总署会议时突发心脏病死亡。巴鲁克．布伦博格享年85岁。