VOA慢速英语:Mobile Phones Could Help Efforts to End Malaria

Researchers are studying the use of mobile phones to document the spread of malaria. The study is part of an effort to stop or control the disease.
研究者正在研究使用手机来记录疟疾的传播，这项研究是努力终结或控制该疾病的尝试的一部分。

The World Health Organization says malaria mortality rates have fallen by twenty-five percent since two thousand. Yet the disease killed an estimated six hundred fifty-five thousand people in twenty-ten.
世卫组织称2000年以来疟疾的死亡率下降了25%，然而2010年估计有65.5万人死于疟疾。

Scientists say malaria-carrying mosquitoes cannot travel far on their own. But the insects can, and do, catch rides in the belongings of people who travel. Malaria also can be spread by people who come from an area with large numbers of malaria cases. They may show no signs of having the disease themselves.
科学家称传播疟疾的蚊子靠自身力量无法飞行很远，但昆虫可以呆在人的物品里随人去很远的地方。来自有大量疟疾病人地区的人可以传播疟疾，他们自身可能没有患病迹象。

That is what Harvard University researchers discovered in Kenya. They found that the disease mainly spreads east from the country’s Lake Victoria area with people who travel to the capital, Nairobi.
这是哈佛大学研究者在肯尼亚的发现，他们发现这种疾病主要随着向首都内罗毕旅行的人从该国维多利亚湖地区向东传播。

Researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health reported the finding. It was based on the mobile phone records of fifteen million Kenyans.
哈佛公共卫生学院的研究者报告了这一发现，发现是基于1500万肯尼亚人手机里的记录得出的。

Caroline Buckee is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard school. She says one of the first steps in stopping malaria is to learn how human travel might be adding to its spread. She says it has been difficult to follow large population movements with methods like government census records.
Caroline Buckee是哈佛大学流行病学副教授，她说终止疟疾的第一个步骤要做的是了解人类旅行如何传播疾病，她说用诸如政府人口普查记录之类的方法很难跟踪大规模的人口流动。

“But mobile phones offer a really unique way, on an uNPRecedented scale, to understand how a whole population is moving around.”
“但手机提供了很独特的方法，可以以前所未有的规模来了解整个人口流动情况。”

In Kenya, the researchers estimated the distance and length of each phone user’s trip away from home. This information was based on messages to and from the mobile phone carrier’s twelve thousand transmission towers.
在肯尼亚，研究者估算每个手机用户从家出发旅行的距离，这些信息基于移动电话运营商1.2万个输电杆塔接受和发出的信息。

The researchers then compared that information to a map showing reports of malaria in different parts of the country. The researchers estimated each user’s probability of being infected in a given area. They also estimated the likelihood that a visitor to that area would become infected.
研究者将一幅显示该国不同地区疟疾报道的地图与这些信息作对比，他们估算每位用户可能在某个地区感染的可能性，还估算了到这个地区的来访者感染的可能性。

The result was a picture showing malaria transmission routes starting in Lake Victoria. Caroline Buckee says such evidence could influence malaria control efforts.
研究结果展现在图片上，显示疟疾传播路线从维多利亚湖开始，Caroline Buckee说，这样的证据可以影响疟疾控制工作。

“One thing that you could consider is sending text messages to people coming to high risk cell towers, for example, reminding them to use a bed net. And I think those types of approaches are simple but they would hopefully target people who are asymptomatic and unaware that they are carrying parasites.”
“可以考虑做的一件事就是，向那些来高危险发射塔的人发短信，比如提醒他们使用蚊帐。我想方法很简单，希望这样可以帮助那些无症状的人，那些没有意识到自己已经携带寄生虫了。”

She says researchers are investigating using mobile phone records in other areas to help identify malaria transmission routes. A report on the study was published in the Journal Science.
她说研究者正在其他地区的调查手机使用记录，来识别疟疾传播路径。关于这项研究的报告发表在《科学》杂志上。