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American History Series: The Treason Trial of Aaron Burr, Former VP

2009-06-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION �?American history in VOA Special English.

Aaron Burr was vice president of the United States. His term came to an end in eighteen hundred and five. He was heavily in debt and his political future did not look promising.

Burr was not without plans, however. For some time, he had been considering an idea. He wanted to seize Mexico from Spain. Burr made secret deals with a number of people. He told them different things to get their help or their money for his plan.

What was Aaron Burr's real goal? Was it to seize Mexico? Or was it to create a country of his own out of some of America's western lands? The facts are not clear.

This week in our series, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about Burr's secret activities, and the trial that ended them.

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Burr traveled west in the spring of eighteen-oh-five. His trip would take him down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to the port city of New Orleans. In that city, he talked with a number of rich, powerful men. He explained his plan. And he found support among those who wished to end Spanish control of Mexico.

Burr was then ready to return east and put his plan into action.

VOICE ONE:

On the way back, Burr stopped in Saint Louis to see General James Wilkinson, governor of the Louisiana Territory. Wilkinson was plotting with Burr.

At the same time, however, Wilkinson was spying for Spain. He did not want to lose the money Spain paid him for information. So he began to think about how he could pull out of Burr's plan.

He advised Burr that it might be best to forget Mexico, that perhaps the time was not right. He offered to help Burr get back into politics as a congressman from Indiana.

Burr rejected Wilkinson's offer. He was not yet ready to give up his dream about Mexico.

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Burr had hoped to begin his move against Mexico in the spring of eighteen-oh-six. Without money, however, he could do nothing.

He tried to get money from people who might be interested in sharing the riches of Mexico. But he was not successful. Nor did he get the money and ships he had asked earlier from Britain.

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War between the United States and Spain was an important part of Burr's plan. Should there be such a war, Burr was sure the men of the western lands would join him against the Spanish in Mexico. Without war, the campaign might fail.

Burr received bad news after he returned to Washington.

He met with President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson made clear that there would be no war with Spain.

After his meeting with Jefferson, Burr began to make new plans. He would forget the idea of invading Mexico -- at least temporarily. Instead, he said he would build a settlement in Louisiana and wait for a better time.

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While Aaron Burr had been traveling in the west, stories began to spread about his activities. Newspaper reports came close to accusing him of plotting to split the Union. People seemed willing to believe the reports. This was the situation General Wilkinson would use to pull out of Burr's plan.

Wilkinson wrote a letter to President Jefferson. He claimed that a force of ten thousand men was moving toward New Orleans. He said it was part of a campaign against Mexico. He gave details of the campaign, but claimed he did not know who was leading it. He warned the president that the force might try to seize Louisiana as well as Mexico.

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It was not the first letter Jefferson received about Burr's Mexican campaign. Nor was it the first to say that Burr was, in fact, planning to split some western states from the Union. But, unlike the other letters, Jefferson accepted Wilkinson's as firm evidence against Burr.

The president called a cabinet meeting to discuss what should be done. The result of the meeting was this: all American military commanders were ordered to stop Burr.

President Jefferson then made a public declaration. He said a private military campaign was about to begin against the Spanish, and that anyone involved should leave it immediately. The declaration did not speak of Aaron Burr by name.

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Jefferson also spoke of the private military campaign in his yearly State of the Union message to Congress. Congress asked for more information. In a special message, the president said Burr had several plans. One was to split the western states from the Union. Another was to seize Mexico. He said Burr wanted to make people believe he was building a settlement in Louisiana. But, he said, that was just a trick.

The president said Burr had discovered that the people of the western states would not support any attempt to take them out of the Union. So, the president said, Burr had decided to capture New Orleans. Jefferson said there was no question that Burr was guilty.

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Burr's guilt had not been proved in court. But to many Americans, Jefferson's statement was taken as truth. Some demanded that Burr be put to death for treason.

The crime of treason, as explained in America's Constitution, is the act of a citizen making war against the United States.

Burr was arrested in February, eighteen-oh-seven, and taken to Richmond, Virginia. A federal grand jury hearing would be held to decide if there was enough evidence to bring him to trial. In June, the grand jury officially charged him with treason. Burr would stand trial before John Marshall, chief justice of the United States.

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At one point in court, Burr spoke for himself. "Treason," he said, "is not possible without action. Yet I am being attacked -- not for acts -- but because of false reports about what I might do. The whole country has been turned against me. Is this justice? Wilkinson frightened the president with his reports about me. Then, the president frightened the people."

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It was true that President Jefferson wanted to prove Burr guilty. He ordered government officials in all parts of the country to find witnesses who could give evidence against Burr.

Some of Jefferson's opponents said he did this to turn the trial into a political battle. They believed he wanted to use the trial record to attack Chief Justice Marshall, who was a member of the opposition Federalist Party. Jefferson objected to the way Marshall controlled the Supreme Court. He felt Marshall used his position to threaten the powers of the presidency and Congress.

Chief Justice Marshall knew of Jefferson's part in the accusations against Burr. He was extremely careful and fair in giving his opinions and decisions.

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At the end of August, Chief Justice Marshall stopped taking evidence. He told the court that -- under the Constitution -- a charge of treason must be proved by two witnesses. He said the government's claim had not been proved by even one witness. He ordered the jury to decide the case.

On September first, the jury announced its decision. It said: "We of the jury declare that Aaron Burr is not proved guilty by any evidence offered to us. Therefore, we find him not guilty." Burr and his lawyers angrily protested the way the decision had been written. They said it was wrong for the jury to say more than "guilty" or "not guilty." Marshall agreed. He ordered the decision to be changed to read, simply, "not guilty." The trial was over.

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Aaron Burr lived another twenty-nine years. He spent some time in Europe, and then New York City. A few hours before he died, a friend asked if he had ever plotted -- as part of his plan to seize Mexico -- to split the Union of American states. Burr answered: "No! I would as soon have thought of seizing the moon and informing my friends that I would divide it among them."

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ANNOUNCER:

Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Join us each week for THE MAKING OF A NATION �?an American history series in VOA Special English. Transcripts, podcasts and MP3s of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com.

Debating Eighth-Grade Graduations

2009-06-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

In the United States, middle school is the period between elementary school and eighth grade. Often this is a difficult period of change for children. If all goes well, four years later, they are high school graduates.

Graduation is a term traditionally connected with high school or college. Yet there are even kindergartens and preschools that hold "graduations." These might be mostly for fun. But some people are concerned about the popularity of eighth-grade graduations.

Some families may have trouble paying for costly celebrations organized by parents or schools. Yet they may feel social pressure to take part.

The same criticism has been made for years about high school graduations and senior proms. A prom, short for promenade, is a formal dance.

But critics say that, more importantly, eighth-grade graduations may send the wrong message -- that an eighth-grade education is enough. They are concerned especially about poor communities where many people never finish high school.

The subject has even entered the presidential campaign. Democratic candidate Barack Obama talked about it in a recent speech at a Chicago church. The senator from Illinois said children should be expected to finish high school and college. He reminded people "you're supposed to graduate from eighth grade."

"Let's not have a huge party," he said, "let's just give them a handshake."

A growing number of middle school administrators seem to agree. They are making changes. For example, instead of graduation, some schools now call it a promotion ceremony.

James Williams is the superintendent of public schools in Buffalo, New York. He is urging the schools in his district to hold "moving up" ceremonies at the end of eighth grade. Families would celebrate that students are moving up to the next level of their education.

The school chief says graduation from high school should be the goal. And the ceremony then, he says, should be an important, special and serious event in students' lives.

But some parents in schools that are trying to limit eighth-grade graduations say administrators are overreacting. They say graduation ceremonies are a good way to celebrate success in school. And they say the recognition might make some students more likely to complete their education.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.

Technology Increases Income, Reduces Poverty in Developing Countries

2009-06-14T10:16:00.000-07:00

VOICE ONE:

I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about how technology is improving the lives of people in developing countries.

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Musa Kayairanga of Rwanda is a traditional healer. He uses natural medicines to treat his patients. He learned how to use computers at a rural telecommunications center in his country. Musa Kayairanga says he exchanges information with doctors as far away as Canada. He also says the computer has improved his knowledge of using plants to treat diseases.

Many people in rural areas are now able to communicate with the rest of the world. This is one example of how technology is changing life in developing countries.

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Andrew Burns is an economist at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. He led a recent study of technology in developing countries. The study found that technology has spread faster in such countries than in rich nations. It also found that technological progress has helped raise wages in developing countries. And it reduced the percentage of people living in extreme poverty from twenty-nine percent in nineteen ninety to eighteen percent in two thousand four.

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Progress in communications technology has aided the growth of call centers in developing countries. Call centers are offices where most telephone calls for a business can be answered. For example, a woman in the United States who calls her computer company about a problem might speak with someone in India or Pakistan.

Call centers serve businesses in local and international markets. And they have added to economic growth by providing well-paid jobs and new skills for workers who might not have had such employment.

Ahsan Saeed is a young call center worker in Karachi, Pakistan. He says the job improves his language skills, his sales skills and his ability to deal with people.

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Experts say the wireless telephone has changed lives and businesses more than any other device. Eighty percent of the world's population now lives in an area covered by at least one cell phone network. Arthur Molella heads the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at America's Smithsonian Institution. He says cell phones are having many effects. One effect is increasing communications from countries with strong rulers.

For example, when governments repress their opponents, the world knows about it almost immediately because of cell phone pictures and videos placed on the Internet. This has helped increase international pressure against such governments.

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Yet experts say the spread of technology in the developing world will not necessarily produce the same kind of progress or wealth as in rich nations. Arthur Molella says technology is being used in different ways in developing countries.

Cell phones are an example of what is sometimes called "leapfrog" technology. This is a kind of technology that is not based on earlier technology. For example, many people in developing countries have gone from no telephones to wireless communications.

Cell phones permit developing countries to have a good communications system without the heavy investment of fixed-line telephone technology.

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In Afghanistan, Abdul Wakil owns a store in a village about forty kilometers north of the capital, Kabul. He says his cell phone has been important for his business. In the past, he had to go to Kabul to order products. Now he can do that with a phone call.

The International Telecommunication Union says cell phone signals are able to reach seventy-two percent of Afghanistan's population. By comparison, fewer than one percent of the population has a fixed telephone line.

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Cell phone use worldwide has increased as more countries have opened their state-owned telephone systems to let private companies build cellular networks. By the end of two thousand six, sixty-eight percent of the world's cell phone users were in developing countries.

Andrew Burns of the World Bank says one reason for the spread of cell phones is ease of use. He says a person does not have to be able to read or know mathematics to use such devices.

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Using a cell phone gives a person more power. For example, using cell phones for financial activities is becoming popular in countries where many people do not keep their money in banks.

In Kenya, a low cost cell phone service called M-Pesa lets people send and receive money by using text messages. The service is popular because people do not have to travel long distances to make payments or receive money.

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Cell phones are also proving to be an important tool in health care. They are helping to halt the spread of diseases such as AIDS. In Rwanda, health care workers in rural medical centers use cell phones that have a special software program. An American company, Voxiva, developed the program. The software lets health care workers enter information about medicines and patients in cell phones. Then they can send this information by text messages to health officials in Rwanda's capital. With this information, the workers can better supervise the spread of AIDS and send resources to medical centers to treat the disease.

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Low technology is also important in developing countries. Low-tech inventions can help people improve their quality of life. Two examples are water-cleaning devices and stoves that use a small amount of fuel. This is called "appropriate technology." It usually requires fewer resources than high technology. It also is less costly and easier to operate. And it does not harm the environment.

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Leonidas Simbizi is a soldier in Burundi. He cooks his meal at an army base in Bujumbura. His stove uses the plant material peat instead of wood for fuel. However, he says the stove produces a lot of smoke. Burundi's government wants people to use peat instead of traditional fuels. Peat is easy to get and its use can save trees from being cut down.

Burundi's army is the main user of peat stoves. But the country plans to sell peat stoves to civilians, too.

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In Cambodia, about one hundred thousand homes have ceramic water purifiers. These devices remove microorganisms and other substances, making water safe to drink. The American non-profit group International Development Enterprises has supported the use of the low-tech purifiers.

Cambodians like Lach Emmaly are very satisfied. She says she finds the device useful because she does not have to search for firewood to make a fire to heat water. She says the water purifier saves her time and money, and keeps her healthy.

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Even high-technology products, like computers, can be changed to fit local conditions. One example is the One Laptop Per Child project. An American non-profit group with the same name started the project. The laptop computers are light in weight. They can use energy from the sun or can be hand-powered. Children and their teachers are able to use computer software that meets their needs.

Nicholas Negroponte is the chairman of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation. He says the special laptop is an example of appropriate technology. He says it uses only one twentieth of the power of laptops used in the United States.

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New technology is also helping farmers. Years ago, farmers in India's Uttar Pradesh state sold their wheat to local dealers at whatever price was offered. Now, thanks to the Internet, they can get higher prices for their crops.

In Uttar Pradesh and other states, farmers can go to a center with Internet connections. They are able to use a system, known as e-Choupal, set up by the Indian Tobacco Company. They can get price information and sell their crops on the Internet. They can also get information about the weather so they will know the right time to use chemicals to kill insects. More than six thousand Indian villages are connected to the e-Choupal network. This is another example of how technology is changing the lives of people in developing countries.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Shelley Gollust. Our producer was Mario Ritter. I'm Barbara Klein.

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And I'm Steve Ember. You can read scripts and download audio at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

Safety Checklist Aims to Reduce Mistakes in Surgery

2009-06-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Doctors around the world now perform more than two hundred thirty million major operations every year. The World Health Organization says preventable injuries and deaths from surgical care are a growing concern.

Experts estimate that surgical complications result in at least one million deaths a year. The W.H.O. says studies suggest that about half of these problems may be preventable.

The agency hopes to reduce mistakes with a program built around a new Surgical Safety Checklist.

Atul Gawande at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, helped develop the Safe Surgery Saves Live program. He and other researchers studied records from fifty-six countries.

In two thousand four, surgical complications in developed countries led to death in less than one percent of cases. In developing countries, the rate was five to ten percent.

Complications can happen during an operation or after. For example, an infection might develop after surgery.

More than two hundred medical societies and health ministries are joined in the effort to make surgery safer. The checklist is similar to what airplane pilots use before takeoffs and landings.

One member of the surgical team administers the checklist. The first questions are asked before the patient receives anesthesia. The very first step is to confirm the patient's identity and the operation to be performed.

More questions are asked before the first cut. All members of the team are supposed to introduce themselves by name and job. Another step is to confirm whether the patient was given antibiotics within the last hour to prevent infection.

The third and final part of the checklist is completed before the patient leaves the operating room. For example, surgical items like sponges are counted to make sure nothing is left inside the patient.

At eight study locations worldwide, these tasks were being done only thirty-six percent of the time. But the W.H.O. says use of the checklist increased that to sixty-eight percent. Some hospitals reached almost one hundred percent.

Early results from one thousand patients showed a drop in complications and deaths.

Doctor Gawande says the checklist has helped him in his own surgery.

A final version of the checklist is expected by the end of the year. Britain, Ireland and Jordan are among countries that have already announced plans to use it nationwide.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember.

Desire to End Malaria Makes Sense, but Is It Realistic?

2009-06-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we tell about malaria. The disease threatens people in more than one hundred countries.

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The United States Centers for Disease Control says up to five hundred million people worldwide get malaria each year. The disease kills more than one million malaria patients every year. Many victims are young children in southern Africa.

Malaria also strikes parts of Asia, the Middle East, Central and South America, Hispaniola and islands of the Pacific Ocean.

Early identification and treatment can shorten the sickness and prevent damage to the body’s organs. But many countries that report malaria cases do not have enough money to support campaigns against the disease. And malaria itself resists attempts to defeat it.

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The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given more than one billion dollars to fight malaria. Last year, Mister and Missus Gates said the international health community should attempt to permanently end the threat from the disease. The head of the World Health Organization supports the Gates�?goal. W.H.O. director general Doctor Margaret Chan has urged other experts to attempt to defeat the disease.

But only one communicable disease, smallpox, has ever completely disappeared. Some experts are not sure malaria should be attacked with the goal of destroying it. They say earlier such efforts led to unrealistic hopes, but then failed.

The head of the W.H.O.’s anti-malaria program says current methods could reduce malaria cases by ninety percent. Doctor Arata Kochi said this could happen if enough resources were available to fight the disease.

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A common insect, the mosquito, spreads malaria. Thecarries the parasite that causes the disease. Very small parasites develop in the stomach of the mosquito. Parasites are organisms that live on or in another animal and get their food from that animal.

The general name for the malaria parasite is Plasmodium. Mosquitoes pass the parasites to people when they drink blood through the skin. However, only the female Anopheles mosquitoes drink blood. The males feed only on liquids from plants.

The female Anopheles mosquito drinks blood from people and animals by breaking through the skin with its long, tube-like feeding device. The parasites enter the blood of the victim.

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The blood carries the parasites to the victim's liver. From there they invade cells and reproduce. After nine to sixteen days, the parasites return to the blood and enter the red blood cells. Then they reproduce again. As they do this, they destroy the blood cells. In a short time, the victim develops a high body temperature. The victim becomes weak and is unable to carry out normal activities.

Other signs of malaria include pain in the muscles or head and shaking. Patients with severe malaria may develop liver and kidney failure, seizures and become unable to communicate.

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Signs of malaria have been observed since the beginning of history. Scientists examining bodies of ancient Egyptians have found evidence of the disease in people who lived at least three thousand years ago. And scientists have found hardened remains of mosquitoes millions of years old.

At one time, it was believed that bad air caused malaria. People believed this bad air came from areas of water that were not deep and did not move. It seemed that malaria was most common near these swamps.

Ancient people suspected that mosquitoes were linked to malaria. The Greek historian Herodotus lived about two thousand four hundred years ago. He noted that in swampy areas of Egypt, some people slept in tall structures where mosquitoes could not go. Or they slept under nets that mosquitoes could not go through.

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In eighteen seventy-six, British scientist Patrick Manson discovered that mosquitoes were responsible for passing the disease to human beings. More exactly, he found that insects carry the parasites and pass them to humans.

In eighteen eighty, a French doctor, Alphonse Laveran, discovered that the Plasmodium parasite causes the disease. In eighteen ninety-seven, a British scientist, Ronald Ross, found the malaria parasite in the Anopheles mosquito.

For his discovery of the cause of malaria and other work, Doctor Laveran received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in nineteen-oh-seven. Five years earlier, Mister Ross received the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on malaria.

The discoveries of the three scientists soon led to efforts to control malaria. Then, the discovery of the insect poison D-D-T led to efforts to destroy the disease.

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Between nineteen fifty-five and nineteen sixty-nine, the World Health Organization organized campaigns against the disease. The goal was to use chemicals to kill mosquitoes in homes around the world.

The effort was successful in large areas of North America, southern Europe, the former Soviet Union and some parts of Asia and South America. The spread of the disease in these areas was halted.

However, the disease remained in Central America, parts of South America, and some Asian countries. A W.H.O. campaign never was attempted in Africa. It was too difficult and costly for most African countries.

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In nineteen sixty-eight, malaria suddenly spread in Sri Lanka, where it was believed the disease no longer existed. At the time, the island nation was known as Ceylon. Malaria also spread in Central America, in Southeast Asian nations, and in parts of Africa.

Efforts to destroy the disease throughout the world were suspended in nineteen sixty-nine.

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There are four different kinds of malaria. They are caused by four different kinds of parasites. Three of them cause victims to suffer high body temperatures every few days. But they do not cause death. However, the most common malaria parasite also is the most dangerous. This parasite causes infections that can lead to death.

The best way to prevent malaria is to stay away from the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasites. The female Anopheles mosquito takes blood from its victims mainly at night.

So, people can place material specially treated with insect poison over their beds while they sleep. People can also put anti-insect chemicals on their skin, on clothing and in sleeping areas. They can wear clothes that cover most of the body.

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If the mosquitoes get past barriers used to block them, early drug treatment is needed to be effective. Drugs can destroy the malaria parasite as soon as it enters the human body. This prevents the parasites from entering the red blood cells and dividing. Some drugs can prevent the parasite from establishing itself in the liver.

A recent study found that a protein could provide a way to block the parasite’s actions in the mosquito. The protein would act before the mosquito can infect a human victim. The Global Health Infectious Diseases Research Team at the University of Florida carried out the study.

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Before the fifteenth century, people in what is now Peru knew the covering or bark from the cinchona tree was effective in treating signs of malaria. In eighteen-twenty, two French scientists identified the substance in the bark as quinine. Until the twentieth century, quinine was the chief drug used to prevent and cure some forms of malaria. Today, manufactured drugs treat the disease. The World Health Organization says combination treatments are best for common malaria.

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A new drug meant for common malaria is now being launched in Latin America and Southeast Asia. The medicine, known as ASMQ, combines two existing drugs.

The Brazilian government and a not-for-profit organization are making the new drug available to public agencies. Bernard Pecoul heads the organization, The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative. He says ASMQ reduces the number of pills the patient needs to remember to swallow. Doctor Pecoul says the treatment is safe, fast-acting and effective for children and adults.

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VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I’m Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us at this time next week for more news about science on the Voice of America.