好消息清單 比爾蓋茨的年終總結

I ended 2013 by compiling something slightly unusual: a list of some of the good news you might have missed. I thought it was a pretty good note to end the year on, and people seemed to like reading about some of the ways the world is becoming a better place. This year, I thought I’d do it again。

2013年我編輯了一些有點不同尋常的東西來作爲年終總結：一張你可能錯過了的好消息清單。我覺得作爲年終總結，這是一份相當不錯的筆記，而且人們似乎喜歡讀一些世界在哪些方面變得更好的故事。今年，我想我又要這麼幹了。

Of course, we can’t ignore the fact that it’s been a turbulent year, in the United States and many other countries. But it’s worth taking a moment to celebrate some of the good news too. More children are surviving than ever before. We’re making progress against some of the world’s deadliest diseases. These are some of the most fundamental ways to measure the world’s progress—and by that measure, 2014 was definitely another good year。

當然了，在美國和其他很多國家，我們不能忽略這是充滿騷亂動盪不安的一年。但是花點時間爲些好消息慶祝也是很值的。同從前相比，更多的孩子存活了下來。和世界上的一些致命的疾病作鬥爭，我們正在進步。這些是衡量世界進步的最根本的方法——而且通過以下的估量，2014絕對又是讓人歡喜的一年。

Fifth Birthdays Than Ever Before

和從前相比，更多孩子過上了5歲的生日。

To me, one of the best ways to measure progress is to look at how many children are dying of preventable causes。

對我而言，衡量進步最好的方法之一就是看看，有多少孩子的死亡可以避免。

And today, more kids are living to see their fifth birthday than ever before. This year, for at least the 42nd year in a row, the child mortality rate has fallen. And it’s not just moving in the right direction—it’s falling faster than anyone expected。

同過去相比的今天，更多的孩子活着過上了5歲的生日。在今年，至少是連續第42年兒童的死亡率有所下降。而且不僅僅是朝正確的方向——它比任何人期望的都下降的快。

The Economist ran a great article about this in September, where it estimated that just since 2001, the world has saved 13.6 million children’s lives. It’s hard to think of a better sign the world is improving。

《經濟學人》在9月寫了一篇關於這個問題的長文，自從2001年開始，預計全世界已拯救了1360萬兒童的生命。不難想象，這就是世界正在變好的標誌。

Hit a Big Milestone in Fighting AIDS

我們在對抗艾滋病上取得了里程碑式的進步

The world has done an impressive job of providing treatment to people living with HIV. But for years we were falling behind, because for all the people who started getting treatment, even more would become infected。

對於艾滋病病毒感染者的治療，全世界已經取得了令人欽佩的進步。但是這些年來，我們一直很落後，因爲算上所有開始接受治療的人，也及不上更多的人受感染的速率。

Not anymore, though. New data released this month show that 2013 was the first year when more people started getting treatment than became infected with HIV. Why does that matter? Because treating people not only keeps them alive, it also dramatically reduces the odds that they will pass the virus on to anyone else. As the epidemiologists say, we can start to bend the curve of the disease。

今非昔比。這個月的新數據顯示，2013年是第一年接受治療的人比感染艾滋病病毒的人多了。這爲何顯得意義非凡？因爲病人的治療不僅僅是延續他們的生命，還急劇減少了將病毒傳染給別人的機率。正如流行病專家所說的那樣，這是一個轉折點。

We still have a long way to go before we can declare the end of AIDS, but this is a big milestone。

在能宣告艾滋病已經無所可畏之前，我們還有很長的路要走，但是這確實是里程碑式的一步。

virus Vaccine is Reaching More Kids Than Ever

比起以往更多的孩子接受了輪狀病毒疫苗接種

When I read an article in the late 1990s that mentioned a diarrheal disease called rotavirus killed hundreds of thousands of kids a year, I couldn’t believe something I’d never even heard of was killing that many children。

當我在20世紀90年代閱讀一篇提到名爲輪狀病毒引發的腹瀉病，一年裏能導致成千上萬的兒童死亡，我不敢相信這種我從來沒聽過的病毒殺死了那麼多孩子。

But rotavirus doesn’t get much press because it’s almost never deadly in rich countries—and the world tends to ignore diseases that only affect the world’s poorest people。

但是輪狀病毒沒受多大重視，因爲在發達國家幾乎從不會致死——所以全世界都傾向對這個隻影響貧窮國家人民的疾病視而不見。

In many ways, rotavirus was a catalyst for my commitment to global health—in fact, one of our foundation’s first grants supported efforts against rotavirus. Since then, the number of kids dying from this illness has been cut nearly in half thanks to a cheap and effective vaccine. And today, that vaccine is reaching more kids than ever before。

從很多方面來看，輪狀病毒是我致力委身於全球健康的催化劑——事實上，我們基金會的第一筆補助就是幫助對抗輪狀病毒。從那以後，多虧了廉價又高效的疫苗，死於這種疾病的兒童就減少了近乎一半。同過去相比的今天，更多孩子接受了疫苗接種。

For example in India, where rota kills nearly 80,000 children a year, the government decided this year to deliver the vaccine for free to poor children. And manufacturers there are working on a more affordable vaccine that could reach even more children in the coming years。

舉個例子，在印度，該病毒一年殺死了幾乎8萬兒童，政府決定在今年爲貧窮的孩子發放免費疫苗。而那裏的廠家致力於生產更多價格實惠的疫苗，以便讓更多孩子在接下來的幾年裏負擔的起這種疫苗接種。

4.A Tuberculosis Breakthrough—Finally

肺結核終於有了突破性進展

The world is way overdue for a better tuberculosis treatment。

全世界在更好的治療肺結核上所做的已經遠遠超出預期。

TB is one of the world’s leading causes of death, and our existing treatments are inadequate—especially for drug resistant forms of the disease. But efforts to improve them have been stalled for decades. So it’s a big deal that earlier this year, scientists announced that a new TB treatment regimen has proven effective in early-phase research。

肺結核是全世界第一大致死疾病。而我們現有的治療十分匱乏——尤其是該疾病的耐藥性上。但是幾十年來改進的努力一直止步不前。所以今年早些時候，科學家宣佈一種新型肺結核治療方案在早期研究方案中被證明有效，成爲了大事件。

From here, the drug regimen goes on to a large clinical trial to confirm the results. If this new treatment regimen pans out, it could dramatically reduce the time it takes to cure drug-resistant TB and save poor countries billions of dollars in health-care costs。

從現在開始，用藥法將繼續大型臨牀試驗區來證明這個結論。如果這種新型治療方法成功了，它就能迅速減少治療肺結核耐藥性的時間，並且爲貧窮國家的衛生保健開支省下一大筆。

ria’s Fight Against Polio Helped Its Fight Against Ebola

尼日利亞對抗小兒麻痹症的經驗幫助了其對抗埃博拉

A lot of the media coverage about Nigeria this year focused on two things: Ebola and terrorism。

很多媒體報道了今年尼日利亞專注的兩件事情：埃博拉和恐怖主義。

Both are frightening, and they masked the fact that from a global health perspective, Nigeria actually had a pretty good year. Although it’s one of only three countries that have never been free from polio (Pakistan and Afghanistan are the other two)， I don’t think it will be on that list for long。

但是這兩件恐怖的事從全球健康的角度掩蓋了一個事實：尼日利亞實際上度過了很棒的一年。雖然它是全世界僅有的三個還在遭受小兒麻痹症的國家(還有兩個是巴基斯坦和阿富汗)，我認爲他們很長時間不會上榜了。

Nigeria has reported only six cases of polio this year, compared to more than 50 last year. What’s more, the infrastructure Nigeria has built to fight polio actually made it easier for them to swiftly contain Ebola. The fact that Nigeria is now Ebola free is a great example of how doing the work to fight things like fighting polio also leaves countries better prepared to deal with outbreaks of other diseases。

尼日利亞今年據報道只有6例小兒麻痹症，而去年有50多個病例。而且，尼日利亞建的用於對抗小兒麻痹症的基礎設施，實際上讓他們對抗埃博拉的工作更容易了。尼日利亞如今不再遭受埃博拉侵襲，就是一個很好的例子：像對抗小兒麻痹症這樣疾病的經驗也能讓國家更好的準備其他疾病暴發時的應對。

ing Ahead

展望未來

One more thing: this January, Melinda and I will publish our annual letter. This year, we’re looking ahead to 2030. We’ll be writing about a few areas—from health to farming and banking—where life will really change, especially for people in some of the world’s poorest places。

還有一件事：今年1月，梅琳達和我將會出版我們每一年的信件。今年，我們展望至2030年。我們書寫着尤其是世界上最貧窮地方人們的生活，在一些領域——從健康到農業到銀行——生活的改變。