Name: 【TED】比爾．蓋茲(Bill Gates)退而不休 (Mosquitos, malaria and education | Bill Gates)
Uploaded: 2012-12-17T18:45:46.000Z
Duration: 20 min 17 s

I wrote a letter last week talking about the work of the foundation,

上周我寫了一封信給基金會，談論關於其工作內容的事，

And Warren Buffet had recommended I do that --

華倫巴菲特(Warren Buffet)建議我那麼做，

being honest about what was going well, what wasn't,

如實地談論好的部份與不好的部份，

A goal I had there was to draw more people in to work on those problems,

我希望能吸引更多人投入解決這些問題的工作上，

because I think there are some very important problems

因為我認為這些問題非常重要，

That is, the market does not drive the scientists,

the communicators, the thinkers, the governments

And only by paying attention to these things

and having brilliant people who care and draw other people in

並且讓關心此事的英才吸引更多其他的人加入，

can we make as much progress as we need to.

才能為我們所面對的問題帶來進步。

So this morning I'm going to share two of these problems

所以今天早上，我將與大家分享其中兩個問題，

But before I dive into those I want to admit that I am an optimist.

但是在我進入這些話題之前，我必須向大家承認我是個極為樂觀的人。

Any tough problem, I think it can be solved.

任何棘手的問題我都認為有辦法去解決。

And part of the reason I feel that way is looking at the past.

而其中之一的原因是我認為我們可以由過去的經驗求得解答。

Over the past century, average lifespan has more than doubled.

在上一個世紀，人們的平均壽命延長了近一倍。

另外的一項統計，這大概是我最喜歡的部份，

As recently as 1960, 110 million children were born,

and 20 million of those died before the age of five.

Five years ago, 135 million children were born -- so, more --

五年前，1.35億的孩童出生，比過去還多，

and less than 10 million of them died before the age of five.

然而未滿5歲就夭折的不到1千萬。

So that's a factor of two reduction of the childhood death rate.

由這兩點數據我們可看出孩童的死亡率降低了。

每一個被挽救的生命都充滿意義。

And the key reason we were able to it was not only rising incomes

其中重要的因素並不只是人們收入增加，

還有幾個重要的核心技術的突破：

For example, measles was four million of the deaths

例如麻疹曾造成400萬人失去生命，

而今這個數字已低於40萬以下。

The next breakthrough is to cut that 10 million in half again.

下一個關鍵技術的突破可以把1千萬夭折兒童的數量再減半，

And I think that's doable in well under 20 years.

我還認為在20年之後我們可以做得更好，

為甚麼呢? 現在只有一些少數的疾病

that account for the vast majority of those deaths:

So that brings us to the first problem that I'll raise this morning,

所以這引導出今天早上的第一個問題，

which is how do we stop a deadly disease that's spread by mosquitoes?

我們如何阻止蚊蟲散佈這些致命的疾病呢?

Well, what's the history of this disease?

It's been a severe disease for thousands of years.

這些疾病是已存在數千年的重症。

事實上，假如我們看一下遺傳基因，

actually evolved several things to avoid malarial deaths.

為了避免瘧疾導致死亡，已經發展出幾種防治的方法。

Deaths actually peaked at a bit over five million in the 1930s.

在1930年代死亡率人數最高曾超過5百萬人。

A terrible disease. It was in the United States. It was in Europe.

它是個可怕的疾病。它出現在美國，也出現在歐洲。

People didn't know what caused it until the early 1900s,

但在20世紀之前人們都不知道病因，直到1900年初期，

when a British military man figured out that it was mosquitoes.

一位英國的士兵發現了蚊子才是元兇。

And two tools helped bring the death rate down.

有兩種工具能幫助降低死亡率，

The other was treating the patients with quinine, or quinine derivatives.

另外一種是利用奎寧或者類奎寧這種藥品來治療病患。

And so that's why the death rate did come down.

這也是為甚麼這疾病的致死率迅速下降的原因。

it was eliminated from all the temperate zones,

所以我們可以看到，1900年全世界飽受瘧疾的困擾，

到了1945年，它仍然肆虐大多數地區。

1970, the U.S. and most of Europe have gotten rid of it.

到了1970年，美國與歐洲大部份的國家已經擺脫瘧疾了。

1990, you've gotten most of the northern areas.

1990年時，北半球的國家幾乎都已經免除瘧疾的威脅。

And more recently you can see it's just around the equator.

到今天你只能到赤道附近的國家才能看到這類的疾病。

because the disease is only in the poorer countries,

只有在貧困的國家中才會受到這疾病的肆虐，

For example, there's more money put into baldness drugs

例如投入研發治療禿頭的資金，

And so that's why that priority has been set.

這也是為甚麼它比投資瘧疾還來得重要。

even the million deaths a year caused by malaria

Over 200 million people at any one time are suffering from it.

超過2億人口每刻都受到它的威脅，

It means that you can't get the economies in these areas going

所以在瘧疾流行的區域，經濟是無法得到發展的，

because it just holds things back so much.

Now, malaria is of course transmitted by mosquitoes.

I brought some here, just so you could experience this.

我帶了一些到現場，就是希望大家可以也體驗一下子。

We'll let those roam around the auditorium a little bit.

我們可以一起在這個會場中聽一下它們的嗡嗡聲。

There's no reason only poor people should have the experience.

沒有理由只讓窮人們體驗這種感覺

放心，這些蚊子並沒有帶有瘧疾。

So we've come up with a few new things. We've got bed nets.

我們已經有一些新的方法。例如蚊帳。

What it means is the mother and child stay under the bed net at night,

當晚上母親和小孩待在蚊帳內，

so the mosquitoes that bite late at night can't get at them.

And when you use indoor spraying with DDT

And that's happened now in a number of countries.

現在已經有許多國家可以做到了，

But we have to be careful because malaria --

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【TED】比爾．蓋茲(Bill Gates)退而不休 (Mosquitos, malaria and education | Bill Gates)

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