【新闻精讲】

An update on AIDS
HIV's slow retrenchment

retrenchment n.减少
- retrench v. cut down/reduce

The battle against the human immunodeficiency virus continues
immunodeficiency n.免疫缺陷
- immune adj.免疫的
- deficiency n.缺陷

THE latest dispatch from the war on HIV, the “Global AIDS Update 2016”, just published by UNAIDS, the UN agency responsible for combating the virus, brings qualified good news. Last year, it estimates, there were 1.1m AIDS-related deaths, down from a peak of 2m in 2005 and a figure of 1.2m in 2014. Last year also saw 2.1m new infections, down from a peak of 3.4m in 1998 but up from 2014’s estimate of 2.0m.
联合国艾滋病规划署（UNAIDS）——联合国负责对抗艾滋病的机构，近期发布了《全球艾滋病状况报告》。这份最新的战报带来了些好消息，但也很有限。报告估计，去年艾滋病相关死亡有110万例，低于2005年200万的峰值，也少于2014年的120万例。去年新增感染人数为210万人，少于1998年高峰期的340万，但多于2014年200万的估计数字。
dispatch n.官方报告
- The general sent a dispatch to headquarters.
- dispatch v.派遣，快速出发
- They were immediately dispatched to the area.
qualified adj.有限的（limited）
combat v./n.战斗
virus n.病毒
peak n.高峰
infection n.感染
- infect v.感染

By the end of 2015 some 17m people were taking anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs—2m more than the target number for that year, set by the UN in 2011. This accounts for the falling death rate. Some hoped the drug roll-out might also lead to an increased fall-off in the rate of new infections. That hope was based on the idea, experimentally demonstrated at small scale among cohabiting couples, that taking ARVs makes an infected individual less likely to pass the virus on. There is, though, no sign of such an acceleration in the downward trend of new infections. This year’s uptick aside, it has remained fairly steady since the turn of the century, despite the fraction of infected people on ARVs having risen from 3% in 2000 to 46% in 2015.
到2015年底，约有1700万人使用抗逆转录病毒（ARV）药物，比联合国在2011年为该年设定的目标多出200万人。这解释了死亡率的下降。一些人曾希望随着这种药物的推广，新增感染者的出现速度会进一步下降。他们的愿望是基于一个猜测，即服用ARV药物可减少感染者将病毒传染给他人的可能。这个猜测已在同居伴侣间的小范围实验中得以证实，但并没有迹象表明新增感染者的数量有加速下降的趋势。抛开今年的上升数字不谈，自新世纪以来，新增感染者的速度一直较为稳定，尽管感染者中服用ARV药物的比例已从2000年的3%上升到2015年的46%。
account for 解释...原因
roll-out n.大批量生产
fall-off n.减少
cohabit v.同居
acceleration n.加速
- accelerate v.加速
downward adj.向下的
- downward trend
uptick n.上升（small increase）
fraction n.部分

The next UN target is that, by 2020, 90% of those infected should have been diagnosed and know their status, 90% of those so diagnosed should be on ARVs, and 90% of those on ARVs should have suppressed viral loads. That is ambitious, but history suggests those in the field will rise to the challenge.
联合国的下一个目标是，到2020年，让90%的感染者能够被确诊并知晓自己的状况，其中90%的确诊患者能接受ARV治疗，而90%接受ARV治疗者的病毒载量能得到控制。这个目标很宏伟，但历史表明，在这一领域奋战的人们会迎接这个挑战。
diagnose v.诊断
suppress v.阻止（to end or stop by force)
- She suppressed her anger.
ambitious adj.有野心的
- ambition n.抱负