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Science and Technology The fight against AIDS HIV's slow retreat
科技 與艾滋病之戰(zhàn) 艾滋病的緩慢退卻
One of the world's worst plagues is giving ground
抗擊艾滋?。猴@現(xiàn)曙光
THE timing of the pope's much-discussed change of position on the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV (he will now allow prostitutes to use them without fear of hellfire) was surely no coincidence. He made it on November 21st—ten days before World AIDS Day and two before UNAIDS, the United Nations body charged with combating the epidemic, released its latest report on the state of the battle.
近期羅馬教皇改變了其對于使用避孕套以防止艾滋病傳播的立場（稱男妓可以使用避孕套，而不必懼怕地獄之火的懲罰），引來一片議論。這個時間絕非巧合。他是本月21日向外界宣布的——恰逢世界艾滋病日前十天，也是在兩天后，負責(zé)抗擊艾滋病的聯(lián)合國機構(gòu)——聯(lián)合國艾滋病規(guī)劃署（UNAIDS）發(fā)布了其最新的艾滋病防治工作報告。
That report carries good news. Though some 33m people are infected, the rate of new infections is falling—down from 3.1m a year a decade ago to 2.6m in 2009. Moreover, as the map shows, the figure is falling fastest in many of the most heavily infected countries, especially those of sub-Saharan Africa and South and South-East Asia.
這份報告帶來了好消息?？v使艾滋病毒感染人數(shù)已達3300萬，但新增感染者的速度正在放慢——從十年前的每年感染310萬人降至2009年的260萬人。此外，從這張地圖上可以看出，正是那些感染最嚴重的國家新增感染者的速度下降最快，尤其是撒哈拉以南的非洲國家以及南亞、東南亞國家。
The reason is a combination of behavioural change (people are losing their virginity later, are being less promiscuous and are using condoms more), a big reduction in mother-to-child transmission at birth and during breast-feeding, and the roll-out of drug treatment for those already infected.
此中原因是多方面的：包括性行為方式的改變（初次性行為年齡的推遲，濫交的減少以及越來越多地使用安全套），母嬰分娩傳播與哺乳傳播的大幅減少，以及已感染者對毒品的戒除。
Besides prolonging life, anti-HIV drugs make those taking them less likely to pass the virus on. More than 5m people in poor and middle-income countries are now on such drugs, though Michel Sidibe, the head of UNAIDS, says another 10m could benefit. (The remainder of those infected are not yet ill enough for drugs to do them good.) The problem, as always, is money. Dr Sidibe reckons the fight needs about $25 billion a year to be fully effective. At the moment, the sum spent is around $17 billion. Not a bad fraction of the desideratum, but one that will be hard to sustain in the face of the world's economic difficulties.
抗艾滋藥物除了可以延長生命，還可降低服用者將病毒向他人傳播的幾率。超過500萬來自貧困或中等收入國家的艾滋病患者正在服用這種藥物，即使這樣，據(jù)聯(lián)合國艾滋病規(guī)劃署的負責(zé)人Michel?Sidibe說，仍有超過1000萬人需要這種藥物。（這些人已感染病毒但還未服藥，因為癥狀還不足以使藥物發(fā)揮作用。）資金不足始終是個問題。Sidibe博士認為，抗擊艾滋病每年大約需250億美元方可全力維持。但現(xiàn)在最高的年支出只有約170億美元。與總需求相比這還不算太糟，但在全球經(jīng)濟面臨困境的當(dāng)下，想維持這一水平卻又是個難題。
