VOA慢速英语:A Campaign Against Alzheimer's Disease

Last week, the United States government 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.
上周，美国政府宣布针对老年痴呆症的大型教育与研究项目。这种脑损耗疾病目前没有治愈的办法，该计划还将着力研发预防该病的药物。

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.
在美国，500多人患有老年痴呆症或其他种类的痴呆。随着人口年龄变老，预计到2030年，该数字将达到近800万。专家称，到时全球将有6.6亿老年痴呆症和其他痴呆失调症患者。

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.
美国阿尔茨海默氏症计划要求科学家在2025年前开发出预防这类疾病的治疗办法。美国国家卫生研究院官员已经承诺提供5千万美元用于帮助支持这一努力。美国国家卫生研究院负责人Francis Collins在该院举办的顶尖老年痴呆症研究人员会议上讨论了这一计划。

FRANCIS COLLINS: "We have learned more about this disease in the last couple of years than probably ever before. And now the goal is to take that and translate it into interventions."
FRANCIS COLLINS：“过去几年间我们对该病的认识可能比以往都要多，目前我们的目标是将这些知识转化为介入治疗。”

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.
明年年初，亚利桑那州Banner老年痴呆症研究所计划对一种试验药物进行人类测验。这种药物名叫crenezumab，人们希望它能预防老年痴呆症。

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.
该研究将涉及哥伦比亚麦德林地区村庄里的很多家庭，有的家庭成员身患一种罕见的基因失调症，患者有早发型老年痴呆症症状。在45岁左右会有精神损害的迹象，50岁时就会完全呈现这种病症。

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.
已经有300多人同意参与这项研究。其中1/3的人将接受crenezumab药物治疗。其他人将被给予安慰剂，即不含任何药物成分的药片。他们不会知道自己获得的是药物还是安慰剂。这项研究还将涉及少量美国人。

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.
Pierre Tariot将是这项名为“人体试验”研究的主要负责人，他说，每个人都会被告知，这种药物不会起作用，或会得到一片安慰剂。Tariot说人们仍想参与到研究中来。

PIERRE TARIOT: "They have been faced with this devastating illness hitting every generation for hundreds of years. As one of them put it, 'There are many rivers to cross but at least we're at the first bank.'  And that's kind of the attitude that people have had."
PIERRE TARIOT：“数百年来他们每一代人都面临着这种破坏性疾病。正如他们中一人所言，‘要穿过的河流很多，但至少我们在第一个河堤了’。人们现在就是这样的态度。”

Scientists hope that if the drug works in those facing early-onset Alzheimer's, then it might also help older people.
科学家们希望，如果这种药物在这些面临早发型老年痴呆症的患者身上起效，那么它也可能帮助到老年人。

The study in Colombia could take as long as five years, but researchers believe they could get results in two years.
 
在哥伦比亚进行的这项研究可能需要五年时间，但研究人员相信他们在两年内就能获得结果。