April 23
[ 2007-04-23 09:00 ]
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| The HTLV-3 virus is a
variant of a known human cancer virus |
| 1984: Scientist finds Aids virus |
England have
The discovery of a virus which may cause Aids, the fatal disease
sweeping through America, has been hailed as a "monumental breakthrough"
in medical research.
The development was announced in Washington by US Health Secretary
Margaret Heckler.
She said the virus was a variant of a known human cancer virus called
HTLV-3. A blood test has also been developed, which, she said, would be
available within six months, preventing the tragedy of transfusion patients contracting the
disease through tainted blood products.
To hear that there is a possible vaccine that could come out in two or
three years is no good news for these people.
Aids sufferer Bob
Scheckey
She also suggested that a vaccine to prevent Aids might
be ready for testing in two years' time.
"Today's discovery represents the triumph of science over a dreaded
disease," she said.
Aids, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, weakens the immune
system, leaving its victims open to a series of wasting diseases. Those
people who appear to be more at risk of contracting Aids include
homosexuals, haemophiliacs,
drug users and those who have received blood transfusions.
It has been causing widespread panic in the United States, where 4,000
people have been infected since the discovery of the disease in 1981.
Almost half have died.
The findings in the United States are similar to the discovery in
France last week of a virus called LAV, although French researchers
stopped short of saying it was definitely the one which causes Aids.
Reaction to the news among victims was philosophical. Bob Scheckey has
lived with the disease for two years - far longer than his doctors
predicted. He welcomed the news from Washington, but said a possible
vaccine was too far off to offer comfort.
"I am working with people with Aids on a daily basis," he said. "To
hear that there is a possible vaccine that could come out in two or three
years is no good news for these people. Most of the people we're working
with now will be dead by that time."
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| James Earl Ray was
sentenced to 99 years for Martin Luther King's
murder |
|
1998: Martin Luther King killer
dies | Artificially 1969:
The James Earl
Ray, the convicted killer of the black American civil rights leader Martin
Luther King, has died, aged 70, still protesting his innocence.
Officials in the Tennessee prison department said he died in hospital
where he was being treated for terminal liver disease. He had been treated
in hospital several times in the last 15 months.
Dr King died from a single rifle shot as he stood on the balcony of the
Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, on 4 April 1968.
The assassination sparked race riots in more than 100 cities and set
off one of the biggest manhunts in US history.
Ray, an escaped convict, was captured in London more than a year later.
He pleaded guilty to the killing and was sentenced to 99 years in
prison for the murder to escape the electric chair, but three days after
his jail sentence began he withdrew his confession.
Campaign to clear Ray's name
His case was taken up by the King family, which has campaigned for a
new investigation into the assassination in the belief that it may have
been plotted by senior officials in the US Government.
The King family issued a statement expressing grief over the death of
Ray and renewed its call for a fresh inquiry.
Events marking the anniversary of Dr King's assassination in Memphis
last month were dominated by a debate over the viability of claims that
new evidence points to a vast government conspiracy to kill him.
Some black leaders regard the campaign for a new inquiry as a
distraction from the search to put Martin Luther King's vision into
action.
Ray was known to have a fanatical hatred of black people. Even while
serving his sentence in Missouri, he rejected a move to an open farm
prison where conditions were better on the grounds he could not live with
black inmates.
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| Vocabulary:
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transfusion:the transfer of whole blood or blood
products from one individual to
another(輸血，輸液)
haemophiliac:
血友病患者
manhunt:an
organized,extensive search for a person,usually a fugitive
criminal（對逃犯等的搜捕，追捕等）
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