VOALearningEnglish2011.10.20---Simple Steps Can Save Millions of Newborn Lives

VOALearningEnglish2011.10.20---Simple Steps Can Save Millions of Newborn Lives

Simple Steps Can Save Millions of Newborn Lives
This is the VOA Special English Health Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.com | http://facebook.com/voalearningenglish

The latest estimate is that more than three million babies die each year within the first month of life. A report says this is down from 4.6 million deaths in two thousand nine. Still, newborn babies represent about forty percent of all deaths in children under five years old. Experts say five countries have the lowest newborn survival rates: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and the Democratic Republic of Congo. India has one-fourth of all deaths within the first four weeks after birth. The report is from the private humanitarian group Save the Children and the World Health Organization. Dr. Joy Lawn from Save the Children says simple actions can help save lives. "Not delivering the baby onto a dirty surface, drying the baby, keeping the baby warm and feeding the baby straight away resulted almost in a halving of the newborn deaths in a very rural area in India."Dr. Lawn says having trained medical workers present could also save many babies and mothers. "If you had the health workers with the right equipment and the right drugs in these settings, definitely maternal deaths, neonatal deaths, child deaths, could be halved."And the equipment does not have to be complex. A student team at Rice University in Houston, Texas, developed a low-cost device to assist newborns with breathing problems. The device is called infantAIR. The researchers plan to test it at a hospital in Malawi, then develop training programs for nurses and hospital technicians.The World Health Organization estimates that about fifteen hundred pregnant women die each day. Millions more suffer infections or injuries from pregnancy and childbirth. A recent conference in Washington presented winning ideas in a competition called "Saving Lives at Birth." The top honors went to Dr. Michelle McIntosh and her team at Monash University in Australia. They plan to manufacture a dry powder containing the drug oxytocin. Oxytocin reduces the bleeding after birth that causes twenty-five percent of all maternal deaths. The powder would be used in a spray that the mother could inhale into her lungs. The contest organizers included the US Agency for International Development and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. There is evidence that programs to reduce newborn deaths are starting to make progress, especially in parts of South Asia. But progress is slower in Africa. The new report says Africa could need more than one hundred fifty years to reach the current survival rates in the United States or Britain.For VOA Special English, I'm Alex Villarreal.

(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 14Sep2011)

簡單的步驟，可以節省數百萬新生兒的生命
這是美國之音特別英語衛生報告“，從 http://voaspecialenglish.com | http://facebook.com/voalearningenglish

最新的估計是每年超過 300萬嬰兒出生後第一個月內死亡的。有報導說這是從 460萬兩千9人死亡。然而，新生嬰兒，5歲以下兒童所有死亡人數的的百分之四十。專家說，五國的新生兒的存活率最低：印度，尼日利亞，巴基斯坦，中國和剛果民主共和國。印度擁有的前四個星期內出生後所有死亡人數的四分之一。該報告是由私人人道組織救助兒童會和世界衛生組織。博士救助兒童歡樂草坪說，簡單的操作，可以幫助挽救生命。 “不能提供的嬰兒到一個骯髒的表面，乾燥的寶寶，保持嬰兒保暖和餵養嬰兒馬上結果幾乎在在印度農村地區新生兒死亡減少了一半。”博士草坪說，有訓練有素的醫務人員目前還可以節省許多嬰兒和母親。 “如果你有合適的設備和正確的藥物，這些設置，絕對產婦死亡，新生兒死亡，兒童死亡的衛生工作者，可減半。”和設備沒有很複雜。一個在得克薩斯州休斯敦賴斯大學的學生團隊開發了一種低成本的設備，以協助呼吸困難的新生兒。該設備被稱為 infantAIR。護士和醫院 technicians.The世界衛生組織的研究人員計劃在馬拉維的一家醫院進行測試，然後制定培訓計劃，估計約一千五百孕婦每天死亡。還有數百萬人遭受感染或因懷孕和生育傷亡。在華盛頓的一個最近的一次會議上提出，贏得競爭稱為“拯救生命出生時的想法。”最高榮譽去的米歇爾麥金托什博士和她在澳大利亞莫納什大學的團隊。他們計劃生產含有藥物催產素乾粉。催產素減少出血，出生後，導致百分之二十五年的所有孕產婦死亡。將用於粉末噴霧母親，她的肺部吸入。本次大賽的組織者包括為美國國際開發署和比爾和梅林達蓋茨基金會署。方案，以減少新生兒死亡的開始，特別是在南亞地區的進展情況，有證據。但進展是在非洲慢。這份新的報告說，非洲需要超過一百五十多年，以達到在美國或Britain.For美國之音特別英語當前的生存率，我亞歷克斯比利亞雷亞爾。

（從一個電台節目中播出14Sep2011改編）