This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。
Today we answer a question. Vu Quang Hien from Vietnam wants to know more about hepatitis B. Hepatitis is the name for a group of viral infections that attack the liver. These are called A, B, C and so on.
今天我们来回答一个问题。来自越南的Vu Quang Hien想了解更多关于乙肝的知识。肝炎是攻击肝脏的一系列病毒感染的总称，分为甲肝、乙肝、丙肝等等。
An estimated two billion people are infected with hepatitis B. The rates are highest in China and other parts of Asia. The World Health Organization says most of these infections happen during childhood.
全球预计有20亿人感染了乙肝。其中中国和亚洲其他地区的感染率最高。世卫组织表示，大部分乙肝感染都发生在儿童时期。
Hepatitis B is spread through contact with infected blood or other body fluids. Mothers can infect babies at birth. Unsafe injections and sexual contact can also spread the virus. Experts say it can survive outside the body for at least a week.
乙肝通过血液和其他体液传播。孕妇分娩时也可能感染婴儿。不安全的注射以及性接触也能传播乙肝病毒。专家表示，乙肝病毒在体外至少可以存活一周时间。
There are two forms of hepatitis B -- acute and chronic. Acute cases last for several weeks, although recovery can take months. Chronic cases can lead to death from cirrhosis or scarring of the liver and liver cancer.
乙肝分为急性和慢性2种。急性乙肝只持续几周，但康复可能耗时数月。慢性乙肝则会转为肝硬化和肝癌，进而导致死亡。
Yet people with long-term liver infections can live for years and not even know they are infected. The ones most likely to develop chronic hepatitis B are young children.
然而慢性肝炎患者可能存活多年，甚至不知道自己被感染。最容易感染慢性乙肝的是幼年儿童。
In the United States, experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urge medical providers to test Asian-American patients.
美国疾病防控中心的专家呼吁医疗机构对亚裔美国病人进行慢性乙肝检测。
DR. JOHN WARD: "The bottom line -- since most people of Asian heritage came to the US from endemic countries or were born to parents from these countries, they should be screened for chronic hepatitis B."
约翰·沃德医生：“根本原因是，由于大多数亚裔来自肝炎流行国家，或者他们的父母来自这些国家，他们应该进行慢性乙肝检查。”
For acute hepatitis B, patients may receive care to replace lost fluids, but there are no treatments. Doctors can treat chronic cases with interferon and antiviral drugs. But these medicines cost too much for most of the world's poor.
对急性乙肝来说，患者可能被精心照顾，替换失去的体液，但无需治疗。医生可以使用干扰素和抗病毒药物治疗慢性乙肝，但这些药物对世界上大部分贫困人口来说过于昂贵。
A vaccine to prevent hepatitis B has been available for thirty years. The researcher who discovered this vaccine -- and hepatitis B itself -- was an American named Baruch Blumberg. Dr. Blumberg also showed that the virus could cause liver cancer.
预防乙肝的疫苗已经问世三十年。发现乙肝并研制出疫苗的是美国人巴鲁克·布隆伯格（Baruch Blumberg）。布隆伯格医生还指出这种病毒可能导致肝癌。
He and another researcher at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Irving Millman, invented the vaccine in nineteen sixty-nine. But Dr. Blumberg said it took some time to find a drug company willing to produce it.
1969年，他和费城福克斯蔡斯癌症中心的另一位研究员欧文·米尔曼（Irving Millman）研制出乙肝疫苗。但布隆伯格医生表示，他们花了不少时间才找到一家愿意生产这种疫苗的制药公司。
He first became interested in studying infectious disease when he volunteered in Surinam during his medical training.
布隆伯格医疗培训期间在苏里南做志愿者，这期间他开始对研究传染病感兴趣。
His discoveries with hepatitis B saved many lives and earned him a Nobel Prize in medicine. But he also had other interests -- including the search for life in outer space.
他在乙肝上的发现拯救了许多人的生命，并因此赢得诺贝尔医学奖。但他还有其他兴趣，包括寻找外太空的生命。
In the late nineties, he helped launch the Astrobiology Institute at NASA. He was at a space agency conference in California in April when he died, apparently of a heart attack. Baruch Blumberg was eighty-five years old.
九十年代后期，他帮助美国宇航局成立了天体生物研究所。今年四月他在加州参加美国宇航局一次会议时心脏病发作去世，享年85岁。