Researchers1 are studying how mobile phones2 can help to document the spread3 of malaria.
The study is part of an effort4
to stop, or at least5,
control the disease6
which killed7 an
estimated 655,000 people in 2010.
Scientists say malaria-carrying
mosquitoes8 cannot9
travel far10 on their own11, but
they can catch rides12
on people. That is what Harvard University researchers discovered13 in Kenya. They found14 that people carry15 the disease east16 from the Lake Victoria to the capital,
Nairobi.
How did they discover this? The answer17
is simple: they followed18
their phones. Harvard public health19
researchers studied the mobile phone records20
of 15 million Kenyans who travel. Researchers estimated the distance and length21 of each22 phone user's trip23 away from home24.
This information was based on messages to and from the mobile phone
carrier's 12,000 transmission towers25.
The researchers then compared that information to a map showing26 reports27
of malaria in different parts of the country.
The researchers then estimated each user's probability of being infected28 in a
given area29. They also30
estimated the likelihood31
that a visitor to that area would
become infected32.
The result was a picture showing malaria transmission paths33 starting in
Lake Victoria. Caroline Buckee is an assistant professor of epidemiology at
Harvard. She says one of the first
steps34 in stopping malaria is to learn how human travel might35 add to its
spread.
Caroline Buckee also says researchers are considering using mobile phone
records in other areas to help identify36
malaria transmission paths. For VOA Learning English, I'm Alex Villarreal.
(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 22Oct2012)
Vocabulary
1. Researchers = pesquisadores
2. mobile phones = telefones celulares
3. spread = disseminação
4. effort = esforço
5. at least = pelo menos
6. disease = doença
7. killed = matou
8. malaria-carrying mosquitoes = mosquitos portadores da malária
9. cannot = não conseguem
10. far = longe
11. on their own = por si proprios
12. catch rides = pegar caronas
13. discovered = descobriram
14. found = descobriram
15. carry = transporter, carregar
16. east = leste
17. answer = resposta
18. followed = seguiram
19. health = saúde
20. records = registros
21. length = extensão, comprimento
22. each = cada
23. trip = viagem
24. away from home = longe de casa
25. transmission towers = torres de transmissão
26. showing = mostrando
27. reports = relatorios
28. probability of being infected = probabilidade de ser infectado
29. in a given area = em uma certa area
30. also = também
31. likelihood = probabilidade
32. would become infected = tornaria-se infectado
33. paths = rotas, caminhos
34. one of the first steps = um dos primeiros passos
35. might = pode (possibilidade)
36. identify = identificar