

Six researchers who gave all to their work

[ 2011-06-01 14:05]     字号 [] [] []  

Six researchers who gave all to their work


FAITH LAPIDUS: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, the stories of some medical heroes.



In August of 1900, the researchers began to raise mosquitoes and infect them with the virus. Nine of the Americans let the infected insects bite them. Nothing happened. Then two more let the mosquitoes bite them. Both men developed yellow fever.

FAITH LAPIDUS: A doctor named Jesse William Lazear recognized that the mosquitoes that bit the last two men had been older than the others. Doctor Lazear proved that mosquitoes did carry yellow fever.


BOB DOUGHTY: Jesse Lazear died of yellow fever. His death shocked the others on the team in Cuba. But they continued their work.

More people let themselves be bitten by mosquitoes. Others were injected with blood from victims of yellow fever. Some people in this test group developed the disease, but all recovered to full health.


FAITH LAPIDUS: The research answered the question of how yellow fever was spread. Now the question was how to protect people. The researchers had a theory. They thought that people who were bitten by infected mosquitoes, but recovered, were protected in the future.

To test this idea, the team in Cuba offered 100 dollars to anyone who would agree to be bitten by infected mosquitoes. Nineteen people agreed. The only American was Clara Maass. She was a nurse who worked with yellow fever patients in Cuba.

Six researchers who gave all to their work

Clara Maass was bitten by infected mosquitoes seven times between March and August of 1901. Only one of the 19 people developed the disease -- until that August. Then seven people got yellow fever. Clara Maass died six days after she was bitten for the seventh time.






He received permission from the state governor to test this idea at a prison. Prisoners were offered pardons if they took part. One group of prisoners received their usual foods, mostly corn products. A second group ate meat, fresh vegetables and milk.


BOB DOUGHTY: But some medical researchers refused to accept that a poor diet caused pellagra. For the South, pellagra was more than simply a medical problem. There were other issues involved, including Southern pride.


An assistant also took part in the experiments. So did Doctor Goldberger's wife. None of them got sick.




FAITH LAPIDUS: Matthew Lukwiya was the medical administrator of Saint Mary's Hospital in the Gulu District of northern Uganda. In 2000, the hospital was the center of treatment for an outbreak of Ebola. The virus causes severe bleeding. No cure is known. Doctors can only hope that victims are strong enough to survive.


One day he had to deal with a patient who was dying of Ebola. The man had been acting out of control. The doctor knew him well. The patient was a nurse who worked at the hospital. The man was coughing and bleeding. Doctor Lukwiya violated one of his own rules. He wore no protection over his eyes.

Matthew Lukwiya died from the virus in December of 2000. He was 42 years old. Ugandans mourned his death. He was an important influence in the community. Experts say his work during the outbreak helped stop the Ebola virus from spreading out of control.



The hospital asked Doctor Urbani to help identify an unusual infection. He recognized it as a new threat. He made sure other hospitals increased their infection-control measures.

On March 11th, Doctor Urbani developed signs of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Four days later, the World Health Organization declared it a worldwide health threat.

Carlo Urbani was the first doctor to warn the world of the disease that became known as SARS. He died of it on March 29th, 2003. He was 46 years old.


FAITH LAPIDUS: Our final medical hero is molecular biologist Anita Roberts. She was widely recognized by other researchers for her work with a protein called transforming growth factor-beta. TGF-beta can both heal wounds and make healthy cells cancerous.

In 1976, Anita Roberts joined the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health in the United States. She worked for many years with another researcher, Michael Sporn.

They found that TGF-beta helps to heal wounds and is important in the body's defense system against disease. At the same time, though, the two scientists found that the protein can also support the growth of cancer in some cells.




FAITH LAPIDUS: Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and George Grow. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus.

BOB DOUGHTY: And I'm Bob Doughty. Internet users can download transcripts and audio archives of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And we hope you join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.


brewer's yeast: 啤酒酵母

niacin: 烟碱酸

Ebola: 伊波拉病毒（首先在扎伊尔和苏丹发现的一种能导致出血性发热症状的病毒）

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（来源：VOA 编辑：崔旭燕）