英语四级翻译练习题第003组

"Were using the wrong word", says Sean Drysdale, a desperate doctor from a rural hospital at Hlabisa in northern KwaZulu-Natal. "This isnt an epidemic, its a disaster". A recent UNICEF report, which states that almost one-third of Swazilands 900,000 people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, supports this diagnosis. HIV is spreading faster in southern Africa than anywhere else in the world. But is anyone paying attention? (1) Despite the fact that most of the worlds 33.5 million HIV/AIDS cases are in sub-Saharan Africa--with an additional 4 million infected each year--the priorities at last weeks Organization of African Unity summit were conflict resolution and economic development. (2) Yet the epidemic could have a greater impact on economic development--or, rather, the lack of it--than many politicians suspect. While business leaders are more concerned about the Y2K millennium bug than the longterm effect of AIDS, statistics show that the workforce in South Africa, for example, is likely to be 20% HIV positive by next year. Medical officials and researchers warn that not a single country in the region has a cohesive government strategy to tackle the crisis.

(3) The way managers address AIDS in the workplace will determine whether their companies survive the first decade of the 21st century, says Deane Moore, an actuary(保险统计家 ) for South Africas Metropolitarn Life insurance company. Moore estimates that in South Africa there will be 580,000 new AIDS cases a year and a life expectancy of just 38 by 2010. "Well be back to the Middle Ages," says Drysdale, whose hospital is in one of the areas in South Africa with the highest rates of HIV infection. "The graph is heading toward the vertical. And yet people are still not taking it seriously."

The surging rate of AIDS and the 0drop in life expectancy have already helped drag down South Africa 13 Places to 101 out of the 174 countries on the United Nations Development Programmes survey of living standards. The U.N.D.P. noted that, at current infection rates, South Africa could lose about 20% of its workforce to AIDS within the next six or seven years.

Many companies in South Africa are already losing 3% of their workforce to the disease, says Alan Whiteside, director of health, economics and HIV/AIDS research at the University of Natal. There are 2.2 million AIDS orphans in southern Africa, he said at a World Economic Forum conference in Durban earlier this month. (4) "In south Africa we talked of a lost generation because of apartheid, but our next lost generation will be due to children orphaned by AIDS. Levels of HIV infection at antenatal (出生前的)clinics are "truly horrendous," says Whiteside--theyre now 22.8%. Even more serious is the rapid increase in the disease among girls aged 15 to 19, a trend indicating that AIDS prevention programs are having little effect.

Most southern African countries are simply too poor to supply more than

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