科学家预言艾滋病传播有望被终结
http://news.QQ.com　 2008年12月12日14:35 　 中国日报网站　 　 A French scientist who shared this year's Nobel prize for medicine said on Saturday he believed the transmission of AIDS could be eliminated within years.

Luc Montagnier, director of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, told a news conference that halting the transmission of AIDS would make it a disease much like others.

"Our job, of course, is to find complementary treatment to eradicate the infection. I think it's not impossible to do it within a few years," Montagnier said.

"So I hope to see in my lifetime the eradication of, not the AIDS epidemic, but at least the infection," the 76-year-old said. "This could be achieved."

Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi shared half of the 2008 prize for discovering the virus that has killed 25 million people since the early 1980s.

There is no cure for AIDS but cocktails of drugs can control the virus and keep patients healthy.

There is no vaccine either, although researchers are trying to find vaccines that either prevent infection or would control the virus so that patients are less likely to transmit it - a so-called therapeutic vaccine.

Montagnier said he hoped such a therapeutic vaccine could be developed within four to five years, noting he and colleagues had already been working on this for a decade.

German scientist Harald zur Hausen won the other half of the $1.2-million award for finding the cause of cervical cancer. The three scientists said that since the announcement in early October, they had found themselves constantly giving interviews.

(China Daily 12/08/2008 page6)

本周六，今年的诺贝尔医学奖得主之一、法国科学家路克·蒙塔尼埃（Luc Montagnier）表示，他相信，几年后，人类将能够制止艾滋病的蔓延。

任职于世界艾滋病研究与防治基金会的路克·蒙塔尼埃在记者招待会上说，制止艾滋病的蔓延将使艾滋病成为一种同其它疾病无太大差异的疾病。

“当然，我们的任务就是要找出一种能够根除这种传染病的替代疗法。我认为这是很有可能在几年内办到的事情。”

“我希望在我的有生之年可以亲眼见到这种传染病被根除，至少可以看到它的传播途径被根除。这是有可能的”，76岁的蒙塔尼埃说。

路克·蒙塔尼埃和巴雷-西诺希（Françoise Barré-Sinoussi）发现了自上世纪80年代起已经夺走2500万人生命的人类免疫缺陷病毒，并因此获得2008年诺贝尔奖的一半奖金。

迄今为止，艾滋病尚不能被治愈，艾滋鸡尾酒疗法的药物也只能通过控制这类病毒而达到延长患者寿命的目的。

尽管研究人员一直在试图发明一种能够防止病毒传播或能控制患者体内病毒以减少传播可能性的疫苗，即治疗性疫苗，但目前还没有结果。

蒙塔尼埃说，他希望可以在4至5年内研究出这种疫苗，并透露，他和他的同事们已经为此复出了十年的努力。

此外，德国科学家哈拉尔德·楚尔·豪森（Harald zur Hausen）因发现子宫颈癌的引发原因而获得诺贝尔医学奖的另一半奖金，共120万美元。三名科学奖说，自从10月初奖项公布后，他们一直在不停地接受访问。

(中国日报12月8日英文第六版文章 翻译：王丽)