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VOICE ONE:
This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m SarahLong.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week: a progress reporton efforts to stop the disease polio and we answer a listener’squestion about a common kind of cancer.
VOICE ONE:
But first, scientists are examining ways of improving theirability to estimate the effects of underwater earthquakes. Today, welook one system already in use.
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Scientists did not expect thepowerful earthquake that caused huge, destructive waves in theIndian Ocean last month. This is because technology for measuringmotion has never been placed on the floor of Indian Ocean.
Yet, experts have been watching for earthquakes in the PacificOcean for more than fifty years. An international warning system wasestablished there in nineteen sixty-five. The system has itsheadquarters in the American state of Hawaii.
Scientists there listen to sound waves directed at the oceanfloor for possible earthquakes and underwater motion. They alsowatch water levels at more than one hundred water stations acrossthe Pacific Ocean. If destructive waves are discovered, warninginformation is sent to more than one hundred places across thePacific. Experts believe that establishment of similar warningsystems in other areas could help to save many lives.
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Last month, an earthquake in the Indian Ocean caused a series ofevents that killed more than one hundred sixty thousand people. Theearthquake struck in waters near the Indonesian island of Sumatra onDecember twenty-sixth. The earthquake was one of the strongestearthquakes ever measured. It had a rating of nine on the Richterscale, the leading measure for earthquake strength.
The Indian Ocean earthquakecreated huge shock waves, or tsunami. The tsunami struck Sumatra andtwo groups of Indian islands in less than an hour. A short timelater, the deadly waves reached Sri Lanka and Thailand. Severalhours later, the waves reached coastal areas of eastern Africa.Officials say this was enough time to warn countries of possibledanger.
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Scientists usually know within minutes after an underwaterearthquake if it was large enough to create tsunami waves. Yet,warnings are worthless without a local civil defense system toreceive and act on them. Affected areas may lack the communicationssystems needed to warn people quickly.
A tsunami warning system for South Asia is one subject to bediscussed this week at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction inKobe, Japan. Germany, Japan and the United States have each offeredto create a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean.
The Bush Administration will present a plan to deploy scientificequipment throughout the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans and theCaribbean Sea. The equipment would send messages from the oceanfloor to devices floating on top of the water. The information wouldthen be sent by satellite to scientists.
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The World Health Organization saysthe number of people infected with polio rose almost thirty percentlast year. W.H.O. officials say there were one thousand one hundredseventy polio cases worldwide in two thousand four. That compareswith seven hundred eighty-four infections in two thousand three.
Ninety percent of the people infected last year live in threecountries — Nigeria, India, and Pakistan. In fact, Nigeria hadsixty-five percent of all polio cases.
Anti-polio campaigns were halted in northern Nigeria afterIslamic leaders expressed concern about the safety of poliovaccines. Vaccines help the body’s natural defenses recognize andfight disease.
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Polio is a disease that can make people unable to move their armsor legs. It also can kill people. The virus spreads very quicklyamong people who have not been given vaccines.
Recently, a polio vaccination campaign re-started in Nigeria.However, there are already new cases of polio, both in and out ofthe country. W.H.O. officials say the virus has spread to nearbycountries, including Benin, Chad, Ghana and Togo. W.H.O. officialssay conflicts in Ivory Coast and Sudan also affected efforts to stopthe disease.
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The American performer Jerry Orbach died last month. He wassixty-nine years old. The cause of death was prostate cancer. Alistener in Viet Nam wrote to ask us for information about prostatecancer. Than Nguyen wants to know what causes the disease and how itis treated.
Only males have prostate glands so only males get prostatecancer. The gland is a part of the reproductive system. It isinvolved in the production and storage of semen, the malereproductive fluid. Semen is used to fertilize a female’s egg.
A normal prostate is about the size of a small ball or walnut. Acancer can make the prostate larger. This can cause pressure on thebladder and restrict the release of liquid wastes. An enlargedprostate can affect a man’s ability to have sex. It also can causepain in the lower back, hips and upper part of the legs.
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The American Cancer Society estimates that about one in six menin the United States will get prostate cancer. But, the group saysonly one man in thirty-two will die from it. Prostate cancer iscommon in older men.
The National Cancer Institute says more than seventy percent ofmen with the disease are sixty-five years of age or older. However,most prostate cancer grows slowly. So, many patients die of othercauses instead of the disease.
Scientists do not know the exact cause of prostate cancer. Butthey have found things that can influence its development. The WorldHealth Organization says the foods a man eats may affect his chancesof developing the disease. Prostate cancer appears more common incommunities where animal fat, red meats, and high-fat milk productsare a major part of the diet.
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W-H-O officials say about two hundred fifty thousand people dieeach year from prostate cancer. They say the death rate is about tentimes higher in Europe and North America than in Asia.
The Prostate Cancer Foundation says prostate cancer is the mostcommon cancer in the United States. The group also says it is thesecond leading cause of cancer deaths among American men.
The American Cancer Society reports that prostate cancer is morecommon among African-Americans than among white Americans. Also,African Americans are two times as likely as whites to die from it.The group says exercise might help reduce the risk of prostatecancer. Also, men with fathers or brothers who have had the diseaseare more likely to get it than those without such a family history.
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There are many things to consider when choosing a treatment forprostate cancer. Some cancers grow so slowly they never cause anymajor problems in a lifetime. In these cases, a man’s doctor mightsuggest simply watching for changes in the growth.
More rarely, a doctor may perform an operation to remove theprostate. This is a complex surgery that can last as long as fourhours.
A third kind of treatment is radiation. High energy x-rays can beused to kill cancer cells in the prostate. A doctor also may placesmall radioactive seeds in the prostate to kill the cancer. Doctorshave greater control with this method so there is less risk ofdamage to healthy tissue.
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Cancer that has spread beyond the prostate gland may require amore aggressive treatment known as hormonal therapy. A doctor mayoperate to remove the man’s sex organs, or testicles. The testiclesare the main producer of male hormones called androgens. The doctormay advise the patient to use drugs that can cut off the body’sandrogen supply.
Doctors say one of the most important ways for men to reducetheir risk of death from prostate cancer is to find the diseaseearly. There are two ways to discover the disease before any signsof it appear. A doctor will examine the prostate grand using hisfingers. He will feel for any hardness or growth.
A doctor also may test a man’s blood to measure levels of aprotein called prostate-specific antigen. An injured or diseaseprostate often expels P.S.A. The higher the P.S.A. level, thegreater the chance that the patient has prostate cancer.
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VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Karen Leggett, Jill Moss and CatyWeaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. And, our engineer was DwayneCollins. I’m Sarah Long.
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And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THENEWS in VOA Special English.