VOA慢速英语:In Rural India, Medical Myths Spread

Rural areas of India may have few doctors or other health resources. Instead, many people use traditional healers. These faith-based healers, or witch doctors, sometimes have strange theories about how the body works.
印度农村地区的可能几乎没有医生和其它医疗卫生资源，因此许多人采用传统疗法。这些基于信念的治疗师，或巫医，有时候对身体如何工作有一些奇怪的理论。

In West Bengal, for example, some people have long believed that getting bitten by a dog leads to the birth of puppies. Dr. Kumar Kanti Ghosh is a psychiatrist. He helped document this belief in so-called puppy pregnancy syndrome for an article. It appeared in the Lancet medical journal in two thousand three.
例如，在孟加拉邦西部，有的人长期以来一直认为被狗咬伤会导致生出幼犬。Kumar Kanti Ghosh博士是一名心理医生。他帮助把这个被称为小狗妊娠综合症的信念记录到一篇文章中。该文章于2003年发表在《柳叶刀》医学杂志上。

His interest started when a nine-year-old boy came to his health clinic about ten days after being bitten by a dog.
他的兴趣开始于一个9岁男孩在被狗咬伤10日后来到他的诊所。

KUMAR KANTI GHOSH: "He believes that he had developed a pregnancy with a puppy inside his abdomen. And sometimes also his parents have said that sometimes the boy is barking like a dog."
KUMAR KANTI GHOSH：“他认为，自己腹内怀有一只小狗。有时他的父母也说，这名男童有时像狗一样叫。”

A healer named Budheswar Singh says his mixture of yogurt and herbs has cured many people. "If the man is brought to me on time, I can give him my medicine and he will be all right."
一个名为Budheswar Singh的治疗师称，他的酸奶与草药混合物，已经治愈了许多人。“如果他被及时带来找我，我可以给他药，他将很快没事。”

Sanjay Samui is a medical doctor who wishes people would stop believing ideas like this. "They are uneducated village people -- they still hold on to such superstitions," he says. He tells everyone that in no situation can a puppy be born inside a human body.
Sanjay Samui是一名医生，他希望人们不再相信这样的观点。“他们是没有受过教育的农村人，他们仍然坚持这种没有理据的说法。”他告诉大家，在任何情况下，人体内都不会生出小狗。

The national government spends about one and a half percent of India's gross domestic product on health care. This is among the lowest rates in the world. It means faith healers are the only choice in some places. The healers spread medical myths and even build distrust against doctors.
该国政府在医疗上的花费大约只占到国内生产总值的1.5%，这位于世界上最低比率行列。这意味着信念治疗是一些地区的唯一选择。这些治疗师传播医疗神话，甚至建立人们对医生的不信任。

But in some countries, doctors may seek help from traditional healers.
但在一些国家，医生可能会向传统治疗师寻求帮助。

Officials in Russia have counted at least eight hundred thousand alternative healers -- more than the number of medical doctors. Daria Minerova, a healer in Moscow, told a reporter last year that doctors often called on her to either cast spells or clear spells for patients. She said they ask her for help when they have a difficult case in trying to cure a patient.
俄罗斯官员已经统计到至少80万替代治疗师，超过了医生的人数。去年，莫斯科一名治疗师Daria Minerova告诉记者，医生经常找她为病人施法或解除法术。她表示，他们在治疗中遇到困难时就会寻求她的帮助。

Health care in Russia is basically free. So cost does not explain why people seek alternative healers. Marina Belorysova, a college-educated English teacher in Moscow, told a reporter last year that people avoid western medical care in Russia for a different reason.
俄罗斯的医疗保健基本上免费的。因此，费用并无法解释人们为什么寻求替代治疗师。去年，莫斯科一名受过大学教育的英语教师Marina Belorysova告诉记者，人们出于不同原因避免接受俄罗斯西医治疗。

MARINA BELORYSOVA: "Medicine is very poor in Russia. It is very bad. At least they know when they use alternative medicine, nothing really bad will happen, right?"
MARINA BELORYSOVA：“俄罗斯医学非常差，这是非常糟糕的。至少他们知道当他们选择替代治疗师时，不会发生什么不好的事，对不对？”