VOA慢速英语:Opioid Epidemic Sickens Young Children in U.S.(翻译)

For nearly 20 years, opioid abuse has been spreading across the United States.
近20年来，鸦片类药物滥用一直在美国全国泛滥。

Health experts say increasing numbers of Americans are growing physically dependent on painkilling medicines containing opioids, or narcotic drugs.
健康专家表示，对鸦片类止痛药和麻醉药产生生理性依赖的美国人越来越多了。

The problem is so great that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service is calling ’opioid use disorder’ an epidemic.
这个问题很严重，以至于美国卫生与公众服务部称“鸦片类药物使用紊乱”为一场传染病的大流行。

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that “from 2000 to 2014, nearly half a million Americans died from drug overdoses.”
美国疾病控制和预防中心（CDC）表示，“从2000年到2014年，近50万美国人死于药物过量。”

CDC officials reported that opioid overdose deaths “hit record levels in 2014, with an alarming 14 percent increase in one year.”
CDC官员报告称，鸦片类药物过量引发的死亡病例“在2014年达到了创纪录的水平，一年的增长率就达到了令人恐慌的14%。”

The American Society of Addiction Medicine notes on their website that drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. The website says that in 2014, 47,055 people died nationwide because they took more than the medically recommended amount.
美国药物成瘾医学协会在其网站上指出，药物过量是美国人意外死亡的主要原因。该网站显示，在2014年，美国全国有47055人的死亡原因是服药量超过了推荐剂量。

Prescription painkillers containing opioids have led to thousands of overdose deaths and stays in hospitals. But until now, researchers have yet to study how this epidemic affects the youngest members of society.
含有鸦片的处方类止疼药已经导致数千人住院甚至死于药物过量。但是直到现在，研究人员也没有研究这种药物泛滥是如何影响社会中最年轻的成员们的。

Julie Gaither is with the Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut. As an epidemiologist, she studies how diseases spread and how to control them. Gaither is concerned about the huge growth in opioid sales over the past 20 years.
朱莉·盖瑟在康奈狄格州耶鲁大学医学院工作。作为一名流行病学家，她研究的是疾病如何传播以及如何控制疾病。盖瑟很担心最近20年来鸦片类药物销售的大幅度增长。

The opioid epidemic has grown exponentially. It really began in the mid-1990s when physicians were encouraged to do a better job of treating chronic pain. In 2014, there were approximately 19,000 deaths that were attributed to opioid medications.
“鸦片类药物呈指数级地泛滥。这种现象始于二十世纪九十年代中期，那时候医生们被鼓励用它来更好地治疗慢性疼痛。在2014年，约有19000例死亡病例与鸦片类药物有关。”

The CDC says that 48 people nationwide in the U.S. die every day from opioid overdoses. And a new study found that over a 16-year period, more than 13,000 children and teenagers were hospitalized for opioid poisonings.
CDC表示，每天在美国有48人死于鸦片类药物过量。一项最新调查显示，在超过16年的时间里，超过13000名儿童和青少年因为鸦片类药物中毒而住院。

Deepa Camenga is another doctor at the Yale School of Medicine.
迪帕·卡门加是耶鲁大学医学院的另一名医生。

Both she and Gaither looked at hospital records showing children and young people sent home from hospitals. They wanted to find out how many children had been hospitalized in recent years for prescription opioid poisonings.
她和盖瑟检视了儿童和年轻人从医院被送回家的记录。她们试图找出近年来有多少儿童因为含有鸦片的处方药中毒而住院。

We found that the rates of hospitalizations for opioid poisonings doubled during 1997 to 2012. ... We also found that the highest number of hospitalizations were among teenagers, ages 15 through 19. The highest rates of increase in hospitalizations were among our youngest population, which was one to four-year-old children.
“我们发现，从1997年到2012年，因为鸦片类药物中毒导致的住院率高了一倍……我们还发现，这里面住院人数最多的是15岁到19岁的青少年。住院率增长最多的是年龄最小的人群，1岁到4岁的儿童。”

Camenga says the way that medicines with opioids are sold to patients needs to change. She also called for changes in the way in which the drugs are marketed and thrown away.
卡门加说，向患者发售鸦片类药物的风气应该改一改了。她也呼吁应当改变这类药物上市和丢弃的方式。

Our national conversation has focused on how to improve the treatment and prevention of opioid misuse and abuse, but we also hope that this conversation focuses on how to safeguard children from this epidemic.
“我们的全国讨论总是集中在如何改进鸦片类药物的误用和滥用的治疗与预防，但是我希望我们的讨论也能集中在保护孩子们不受这种药物泛滥影响。”

The researchers published the study in JAMA Pediatrics.
研究人员的成果刊登在了《美国医学会杂志》小儿科期刊上。

I’m Anna Matteo.
安娜·马提欧为您报道。