VOASE1114_Education Report

14 November 2007

Number of Foreign Students Rises in US
A new report shows a 3 percent increase last year, the first notable gain since 2001.

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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

A new report says the number of foreign students at colleges and universities in the United States increased three percent last year. This was the first notable increase since two thousand one. And it included a ten percent jump in new international students.

The "Open Doors" report is from the Institute of International Education in New York, with support from the State Department.

American schools last fall had five hundred eighty-three thousand foreign students. The record is five hundred eighty-six thousand. That was set in two thousand two after many years of gains. But after that the numbers fell.

The September eleventh, two thousand one, terrorist attacks led to more restrictive visa requirements. Now, stronger efforts are being made to get more foreign students to study in the United States.

For the sixth year, India sent the most international students last fall, almost eighty-four thousand. That was up ten percent from the year before. China remained in second place, and South Korea was third.

Japan was fourth among the twenty leading senders of foreign students. But the number of Japanese fell sharply -- nine percent.

There were three percent drops from Indonesia and Kenya, the only African country in the top twenty last year. But there were notable increases from Saudi Arabia, Nepal and Vietnam. The number of Saudi students more than doubled, to nearly eight thousand.

For a sixth year, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles had the most foreign students -- more than seven thousand. Columbia University in New York was second.

Other schools in the top five were New York University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University.

The leading area of study was business and management. That was the choice for eighteen percent of foreign students last year. Second was engineering.

The new report also says more than two hundred twenty thousand Americans studied in other countries. That was during the two thousand five-two thousand six school year. It was a record number, and an increase of eight and a half percent from the year before. But only five and a half percent of them stayed for a full year.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. For a link to the "Open Doors" report, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1114_The Making of a Nation

14 November 2007

American History Series: Slavery Arrives as Colonial Expansion Heads South
In 1619, a Dutch ship brought a group of Africans to the British colony at Jamestown. African traders had kidnapped and sold them to the ship's captain, who sold them to the Virginia colonists.

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VOICE ONE:

This is Rich Kleinfeldt.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

Today, we finish the story about the first thirteen American colonies. We tell about how the southern colonies developed.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The most northern of the southern colonies was Maryland. The king of England, Charles the First, gave the land between Virginia and Pennsylvania to George Calvert in sixteen thirty-two. George Calvert was also called Lord Baltimore. He was a Roman Catholic.

George Calvert wanted to start a colony because of religious problems in England. Catholics could not openly observe their religion. They also had to pay money to the government because they did not belong to the Anglican Church, which was the Church of England.

George Calvert never saw the colony that was called Maryland. He died soon after he received the documents. His son Cecil Calvert became the next Lord Baltimore, and received all the land. He had the power to collect taxes, fight wars, make laws and create courts in Maryland. Cecil Calvert named his brother Leonard as the colony's first governor.

Cecil Calvert, center, the second Lord of Baltimore, in a work by artist James Barry

Cecil Calvert believed that English Catholics could live in peace in Maryland with people who believed in Protestant religions. So he urged Catholics to leave England. To get more settlers, he permitted them to own their farms and gave them some power in local politics. Some Catholics did go to Maryland, but not as many as expected. Protestants were in the majority. In sixteen forty-nine, Lord Baltimore accepted a Toleration Act passed by the local government. It guaranteed freedom of religion, but only for Christians.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

King Charles the Second of England gave away more land in America in sixteen sixty-three. This time, he gave to eight English lords the land known as Carolina. It extended south from Virginia into an area known as Florida. Spain controlled Florida. Spain also claimed the southern part of Carolina.

Spanish, French and English settlers had tried to live in that area earlier. But they were not successful. But the eight new owners promised forty hectares of land to anyone who would go to Carolina to live. They also promised religious freedom. The first successful Carolina settlers left England in sixteen seventy. They built a town in an area where two rivers met. They called it Charles Town, for King Charles. Spanish ships attacked the port city many times, but the settlers kept them away.

The settlers planted all kinds of crops to see what would grow best. They found rice was just right for the hot, wet land. Their pigs and cattle did so well that settlers in Carolina started selling meat to the West Indies. Many of Charles Town's settlers came from Barbados, a port used in the West Indies slave trade. The settlers began buying black slaves to help grow the rice. By seventeen-oh-eight, more blacks than whites lived in southern Carolina. The work of slaves made possible a successful economy.

VOICE ONE:

Northern Carolina grew much more slowly than the southern part of the colony. Many settlers to this area were from nearby Virginia. People who did not agree with the Anglican Church were not welcome in Virginia. Some of them moved south to the northern part of Carolina. History experts say that the area that became North Carolina may have been the most democratic of all the colonies. The people generally did not get involved in each other’s lives. They permitted each other to live in peace. They faced danger together from pirates who made the North Carolina coast their headquarters.

Experts say the people in northern Carolina were independent thinkers. In sixteen seventy-seven, some of them rebelled against England. They did not like England's Navigation Acts. These laws forced people in Carolina to pay taxes to England on goods sold to other colonies. Some northern Carolina settlers refused to pay this tax. They even set up their own government and tried to break free of England. But the English soldiers in the colonies stopped the rebellion by arresting its leader.

The differences between the people of northern Carolina and southern Carolina became too great. The owners of the colony divided Carolina into two parts in seventeen twelve.

VOICE TWO:

James Oglethorpe was a rich member of Parliament who used his own money to settle the new colony of Georgia

The last English colony founded in the New World was Georgia. It was established in seventeen thirty-two, under King George the Second. Georgia was the idea of a man named James Oglethorpe. He wanted to solve the debtor problem in England. Debtors are people who cannot re-pay money they owe. At that time, debtors were placed in prison. This made it impossible for them to earn the money needed to pay their debts.

Oglethorpe wanted to create a colony where debtors could go instead of going to prison. He wanted it to be a place where people could have good lives. But not many debtors wanted to go to Georgia. The people who settled there were much like the people in the other colonies. They did not agree with all of Oglethorpe's ideas. They wanted to do things he did not believe were right, like drinking alcohol and owning slaves. The settlers won in the end. They did not accept Oglethorpe's ideas about how they should live.

Life was not easy in Georgia. Spaniards and pirates captured ships of all nations along the coast. Spain controlled Florida and also claimed Georgia and the Carolinas. Border fights were common. Oglethorpe lost all his money trying to establish Georgia. King George took control of the colony in seventeen fifty-two.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

As all these new colonies were being established nearby, the colony of Virginia was growing. A way of life was developing there that was very different from that found in the north. Most people in Virginia at this time were members of the Church of England. Religion was not as important a part of their lives as it was to the people in the north. In the New England colonies, the clergy were considered the most important people in town. In the southern colonies, rich land owners were more important.

People in Virginia did not live in towns, as people did in Massachusetts. They lived along rivers on small farms or on large farms called plantations. Living on a river made it easy to send goods to other nations by ship. Virginians were sending large amounts of tobacco to England on those ships. It was the crop that earned them the most money.

VOICE TWO:

Growing tobacco destroys the elements in the soil that support plant life. After a few years, nothing grows well on land that has been planted with tobacco. A farmer has to stop planting anything on the land every few years. That means he needs a lot of land. He also needs many workers. So tobacco farmers in Virginia began to buy land and workers.

At first, they bought the services of poor people who had no money or jobs. These people were called indentured servants. They made an agreement to work for a farmer for a period of four to seven years. Then they were freed to work for themselves.

Slaves preparing dried tobacco to be shipped to England from Jamestown

In sixteen nineteen, a Dutch ship brought some Africans to Jamestown. They had been kidnapped from their homes by African traders and sold to the ship's captain. He sold them to the Virginia settlers. Those first blacks may have been treated like indentured servants. Later, however, colonists decided to keep them as slaves so they would not have to continue paying for workers. Indians did not make good slaves because they could run away. Blacks could not. They had no place to go. Slowly, laws were approved in Virginia that made it legal to keep black people as slaves. By seventeen fifty, there were more Africans in Virginia than any other group.

VOICE ONE:

History experts continue to debate if slavery caused prejudice in America or prejudice caused slavery. No one knows the answer. Most Europeans of the seventeenth century felt they were better than African people. The reasons for this included the Africans' different customs, religion and the black color of their skin. Europeans believed the color black represented danger and death.

Slavery in the American south affected the history of the United States for many years. It divided the people and led to a great civil war. But slavery did not start in America. That will be our story next week.

VOICE TWO:

This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

VOASE1113_Health Report

13 November 2007

Diabetes Called a Growing Worldwide Epidemic
This year's World Diabetes Day observance, the first recognized by the U.N., centers on children.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Today is World Diabetes Day, part of a campaign to urge governments to do more to fight the disease. Organizers warn of a diabetes epidemic affecting two hundred forty-six million people worldwide.

Last December the United Nations passed a resolution to observe World Diabetes Day every November fourteenth. The International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization began the event in nineteen ninety-one. The federation is an alliance of diabetes groups. It also has partnerships with drug companies.

People with diabetes have too much glucose, or sugar, in their blood. The body changes food into glucose for energy with the help of insulin, a hormone. In diabetics, the body produces little or no insulin or has trouble using the insulin that is produced.

As a result, too much glucose remains in the blood instead of entering cells. Over time, the disease can cause blindness, kidney disease and nerve damage. It also can lead to strokes and heart disease.

People with type one diabetes need insulin injections. Many with type two do not. Instead, it can be controlled through diet, exercise and treatment. And people may be able to prevent it.

This year's World Diabetes Day campaign is about children and adolescents.

Dr. Francine Kaufman

One of the organizers is Doctor Francine Kaufman. She traveled around the world for a film called "Diabetes: A Global Epidemic." The Discovery Health Channel will show it on Sunday.

Type two diabetes used to appear mostly in adults, but now more and more children have it. Doctor Kaufman says it is spreading as more people rise out of poverty in developing countries -- for example, India.

FRANCINE KAUFMAN: "They’re in cars all day long, and they’ve got satellite dishes outside their houses. They are eating more food, and more westernized food and getting overweight and developing diabetes."

She says another place where diabetes is spreading is South Africa.

FRANCINE KAUFMAN: "We were in the townships and people were overweight. There is more food available than has been in the past. And people are getting on buses and going to offices and not necessarily being as physically active as they have been in the past.”

Doctor Kaufman says solutions must be developed country by country and patient by patient. In Brazil, for example, a health clinic holds dances to get diabetes patients more active. Doctor Kaufman says the message of World Diabetes Day is that the disease is manageable and, in the case of type two diabetes, preventable.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOASE1113_Explorations

13 November 2007

Making Soaps with a Story, and the Story of Making Soaps
We explore the history and chemistry of soap.

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Have you ever wondered when washing your hands what materials go into a bar of soap and why it cleans? Today, we answer that question with a visit to a soap maker at her Mount Harmony farm in Middleburg, Virginia. Each kind of soap made by Jean Ann Feneis has a special story. She started her business to support local farmers and their markets.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Mount Harmony’s barn and herb garden

At the Dupont Circle Farmers’ Market in Washington, D.C., you can buy fresh fruits, vegetables, and plants from many local producers. In one area of the market, there is a friendly woman with white blonde hair who sells soaps made from these naturally grown products. Jean Ann Feneis and her husband, Ralph, own Mount Harmony, a nineteenth century farm in the state of Virginia. Miz Feneis named her soap business Mount Harmony in honor of the place where she makes her creations.

JEAN ANN FENEIS: "I am Jean Ann Feneis. I am a farmer entrepreneur with a cottage industry near Middleburg, Virginia. I wanted to do value-added agriculture. When we bought this little, tiny farm I had several ideas. I wanted it to be a learning center of some kind. But I was looking for a product that we could grow things, add to them, and sell them at the farmers market because I wanted to be a part of saving open land, helping small farmers, helping to control growth. I studied soap and I decided it was a product that I could perfect, that I could make the very best soap in the world.”

VOICE TWO:

To really understand the spirit behind Mount Harmony soaps, it helps to visit its planted gardens. Many of the materials in the soaps come from Miz Feneis’ farm.

JEAN ANN FENEIS: “You’ll see little plum trees and little peach trees, apple trees. And in that corner are our large dahlias. We have different kinds of thyme, different kinds of mint, rosemary, marjoram."

At Mount Harmony, soap making takes place in a large cooking area in the barn building. Miz Feneis has workers to help her in the many steps of the process. Mount Harmony soaps are made from olive oil. They also contain palm and coconut oils so that the soap lathers, or creates a foam when rubbed with water.

VOICE ONE:

Mount Harmony soap makers first add water and sodium hydroxide little by little to a large pot of heated oil. When the soap has reached “trace” it means the liquid soap has come to a point where it will not separate back into oil and water. Later, the soap makers add exact measurements of herbs, flowers and essential oils.

The dried herbs and flowers are mostly added for looks and texture. The essential oils give the soap its intense smell. Miz Feneis has many bottles of different kinds of essential oils that she buys from producers all over the world. Smelling these oils is like breathing in an entire field of lavender flowers or a forest of pine trees.

VOICE TWO:

Soaps during the curing process

Next, the liquid soap is poured into rectangular wooden mold forms. The molds are wrapped in plastic for several days so the soap can dry and harden. Later, the soap is taken out of the mold and placed in a storage area to cure or dry for four weeks. This curing process permits water to evaporate from the soap. The soap soon becomes firmer which helps it last longer. The soaps are taken to the markets as soon as they have cured so that they are fresh and have an intense smell.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Understanding soap making also requires a short chemistry and history lesson. Soap is made from a chemical reaction called saponification. During saponification, an alkali base such as sodium hydroxide reacts with a fat to form a small amount of alcohol called glycerol and a metal salt of fatty acids, or soap.

Soap cleans because its molecules attach to nonpolar molecules like oil and polar molecules like water. One end of the soap molecule is attracted to oil and keeps away water, while the other end attaches itself to water and repels oil. This special quality of the soap molecule allows it to suspend oils, which attract dirt. Water can then wash away the soap and the dirt.

VOICE TWO:

No one knows exactly when humans first developed soap. Archeologists have found containers filled with a material similar to soap while studying the ancient cultures of Babylon and Egypt. One story says that soap got its name from Mount Sapo, a place where ancient Romans used to sacrifice animals to their gods.

Rainwater washed melted animal fat and wood ashes down the mountain into a river where women were washing clothes. The women found that the ashes and fat combination made their clothes much cleaner. The story may not be true. But it is likely that the discovery of how to make soap may have been accidental.

VOICE ONE:

Soap businesses began to appear in England, France and Italy during the Middle Ages. By the twelfth century, soap making centers had developed in cities such as Marseilles, France and Savona, Italy. Later, Bristol, England also became an important city for soap production.

Two scientists helped modernize soap production. The French chemist Nicolas Leblanc discovered how to make soda ash from salt in the late eighteenth century. As a result, soda, a main material in soap, became easier to make.

But this process also released large amounts of deadly hydrochloric acid gas. The Belgian chemist Ernest Solvay later developed a better method of soda ash production in the eighteen sixties.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

When Jean Ann Feneis first started her Mount Harmony business, she hired a soap expert to help her develop different kinds of products. She soon started to develop her own ideas for new combinations of smells and colors. She has created about two hundred kinds of soaps. We asked Miz Feneis what influences her to create a new product.

Jean Ann Feneis named one of her soaps after Zaphora, a girl she met in Uganda

JEAN ANN FENEIS: “People! Or a cause. I try to make soaps for people that we love. For our families, our friends, our staff. Or occasionally for a fundraiser. This is our newest soap to support the elephant sanctuary. The sanctuary takes in elephants that have been in circuses or zoos and need a place to retire. Zaphora has her own soap. She’s a child I met in Uganda and it gives us a little bit towards her schooling and her books.”

VOICE ONE:

She says some soaps are influenced by current movies, or by places that are important to her. Other soaps are just made for fun.

JEAN ANN FENEIS: “This one is called the 'Yellow Submarine' because it has a little block of yellow in the middle of it. One of our first soaps was called 'Sir Robert the Bruce of Bergamot.' People always think I am talking about the Scottish warrior Robert the Bruce. But, really, Robert Bruce was a three-year-old boy. He was my first soap maker’s son. I am blessed with great soap makers who aren’t afraid to try new things.”

VOICE TWO:

Mount Harmony soaps at the Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market

People can buy pieces of Mount Harmony soaps that are cut off of a large rectangular block. Or, they can buy soap that has been beautifully wrapped in brightly colored tissue paper and cloth ribbons. The thin paper wrapping allows the soap to breathe and continue to dry out. The idea for this colorful presentation came from the expertly wrapped objects Miz Feneis discovered in stores on trips to Paris, France.

VOICE ONE:

Mount Harmony soaps are sold at as many as thirteen different farmers’ markets every week. Miz Feneis employs about twenty-six part time workers to sell at the markets. She says she is very careful about choosing the people who work for her. She says she does not check the number of soaps that her workers take to and bring back from the markets. She says her business operates on a system of trust.

Mount Harmony produces about forty-five thousand bars of soap every year. Extra soaps are donated to children without parents who live in an orphanage home in Juarez, Mexico. The company also gives soaps to a women’s shelter and a retirement home for old people.

VOICE TWO:

When Jean Ann Feneis is not working on her soap business, she likes to travel. While visiting South America, she studied different herbs as possible materials in her soaps. In Africa, her visit to the spice farms in Zanzibar also gave her new ideas for her creations.

Jean Ann Feneis also travels internationally as a volunteer. She travels with a group led by Five Talents. This religious-based organization helps people in poor communities get small loans to start businesses. Every year Miz Feneis goes to Rwanda and Uganda to teach people about her own business experiences and to train people in micro-financing methods.

When she travels to these countries in Africa, she brings hundreds of soaps to give as gifts. The people Miz Feneis meets on her travels may never actually visit Mount Harmony. But they can experience an important part of the farm by using one of its handmade products.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Barbara Klein. You can see pictures of Mount Harmony and its soaps on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.

VOASE1112_Agriculture Report

12 November 2007

Study Points to Risk in Common Method of Enriching Soil
An Illinois team warns that too much nitrogen fertilizer can reduce organic carbon instead of building it.

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This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

For more than half a century, many farmers worldwide have added nitrogen fertilizer to their soil. They do this to increase the supply of organic carbon for the long-term health of the soil.

Corn needs a lot of nitrogen fertilizer

But four scientists from the University of Illinois say too much synthetic nitrogen may instead reduce the organic carbon. They report their findings in the current Journal of Environmental Quality.

The team led by Saeed Khan studied soil taken from the Morrow Plots. These experimental farm fields near the University of Illinois have been used for more than one hundred years.

The researchers studied one area where corn is continuously grown. They compared it with another area where corn is planted in turn with oats and hay.

Over a period of more than fifty years, the area where only corn was grown got more chemical nitrogen fertilizer than the other area. But production in the continuous corn area was twenty percent lower compared to the other area. And the scientists found that both areas had reduced levels of organic carbon.

The researchers also studied field reports from around the world. They say they kept finding evidence of organic carbon reductions for synthetically fertilized soils.

Team member Richard Mulvaney says organic carbon is extremely important for healthy soil. For example, it helps provide air for root growth and increases the soil’s ability to store water.

Farmers traditionally made nitrogen with animal waste. They would also plant corn one season and a crop like alfalfa the next season. But many farmers changed their growing methods when synthetic nitrogen became widely available in the nineteen fifties. Before then, the chemical had been used mostly for weapons production for the two world wars.

Corn production and profits rose. But the researchers say over-fertilization often resulted because farmers underestimated the amount of nitrogen already in the soil. Too much fertilization reduces profits and is bad for the environment.

The scientists say they do not question the importance of nitrogen fertilizers for crop production. What their research shows, they say, is the importance of testing the soil before adding them.

Saeed Khan and Richard Mulvaney have created what they call the Illinois Soil Nitrogen Test. Some agriculture experts have praised it. Others, though, have questioned its effectiveness.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. This report was written by Jerilyn Watson.

VOASE1112_Science In the News

12 November 2007

Discovery That Stored Blood Loses a Life-Saving Gas Could Solve Mystery
Also: A 7-year-old listener asks how to help a friend with a genetic disorder called phenylketonuria, or PKU.

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VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week, we will tell about a gas that helps to carry oxygen from the blood. We will also report on a British sleep study. And we answer a question from Canada about a genetic disorder.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Stored blood loses nitric oxide

Scientists have discovered that stored blood loses a life-saving gas. The discovery may explain why a great number of people get sick after receiving stored blood.

In recent years, experts have wondered why patients who should survive sometimes die after receiving a blood transfusion. The cause of death is often a heart attack or stroke.

VOICE TWO:

Jonathan Stamler is a professor of medicine at Duke University in North Carolina. He and other researchers found that stored blood has very low levels of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is a gas found in red blood cells. The gas helps to keep blood passages open so that oxygen in the red cells can reach the heart and other organs.

Professor Stamler and his team found that nitric oxide in blood begins to break down as soon as the blood is collected. Their findings were reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

VOICE ONE:

Another team of Duke University scientists carried out a separate study. Professor Stamler says that study showed the breakdown of nitric oxide begins within hours of blood collection. He says the life-saving gas is partly lost after three hours, and about seventy percent of it is lost after just one day. As a result, he says, there is almost no time that stored blood has enough nitric oxide.

VOICE TWO:

Scientists tested their theory on dogs and found that low levels of nitric oxide reduced the flow of blood. Professor Stamler says the scientists corrected the situation by adding nitric oxide to the stored blood. He says the extra nitric oxide repaired the ability of red blood cells to expand blood passages. He says blood when injected in animals does a very fine job of improving blood flow and getting oxygen to tissues.

Professor Stamler says people who are in serious need of a blood transfusion should have one immediately. But he says more studies are needed to show who would receive the most help from stored blood.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

A British study suggests that women who fail to get enough sleep are at higher risk than men of developing high blood pressure.

Researchers at the University of Warwick Medical School led the study. Their report was published last month in Hypertension magazine.

The researchers studied health information from more than ten thousand British public employees. The information was gathered in the nineteen eighties. At the time, the employees were between thirty-five and fifty-five years of age.

The researchers also used more recent information about some of the volunteers. This information was collected in the late nineteen nineties, and again in two thousand three and two thousand four.

VOICE TWO:

Earlier studies have shown a link between lack of sleep and an increased risk of high blood pressure, or hypertension. Hypertension is known to increase the risk of heart disease.

Blood pressure readings are measured in millimeters of mercury and often given as two numbers. The researchers described hypertension as blood pressure higher than or equal to a reading of one hundred forty over ninety. The volunteers were identified as having hypertension if they commonly used medicine to treat high blood pressure.

VOICE ONE:

By the end of the study, twenty percent of the people had developed high blood pressure. The risk was higher among women who did not get enough sleep. The women who slept less than or equal to five hours were two times as likely as women who slept for seven hours or more. The study found no difference between men who slept less than five hours and those sleeping seven hours or more.

Francisco Cappuccio from the Warwick Medical School led the study. He says women who sleep less than five hours a night should attempt to get more rest. He also says other evidence suggests lack of sleep as possibly influencing weight gain and conditions like diabetes.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

An American study has examined treatment of AIDS in Africa, south of the Sahara. The study involved people who have AIDS or the virus that causes the disease.

Researchers at Boston University studied reports about adults who have HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus. The patients received HIV medicines in thirteen countries in southern Africa over a seven-year period. Two years after beginning treatment, only sixty-one percent of patients on average were still taking the medicines. The Public Library of Science reported the findings.

VOICE ONE:

Christopher Gill of Boston University says the study was designed to estimate the effectiveness of HIV drug programs in the thirteen countries. Professor Gill is an expert on infectious diseases. He is concerned that up to one-third of the patients discontinued their treatment. He says that for whatever reason, the programs were unable to follow the patients. He says the patients may have died or stopped using the drugs.

Professor Gill says public health officials have proved that it is possible to bring HIV medicines to poor countries. He says the problem now is to find ways to make sure people who are taking the medicines continue to do so.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Phenylketonuria is a genetic disorder. It is also called PKU. A seven-year-old listener from Canada has a friend in China with the disorder. Sarah Sun wants to know more about PKU and how to help people with it.

People with PKU are unable to break down an amino acid called phenylalanine, or Phe. The body uses this amino acid to build proteins. There is a gene that helps the body take in Phe. But some people are born with genetic orders that change how the gene operates. This causes Phe levels in the blood to increase.

Extremely high levels of the amino acid can cause severe damage to a baby’s brain. That is why it is important to identify the disorder in newborns so a special diet can be established early in life. Many hospitals in wealthy nations require PKU tests on young babies. Early medical intervention provides the best results.

VOICE ONE:

Babies with PKU who eat low-protein foods can develop normally. If they remain on the diet, they may never experience any signs of the condition. But, it is tricky because phenylalanine is in a lot of foods. For example, all meats and milk products have high amounts. Beans and nuts are also high in Phe. And, children with PKU should not use the non-sugar sweetener aspartame. It contains a lot of Phe. Aspartame can be found in many sugar-free products like drinks.

Everyone needs some protein for health. So, many doctors advise their PKU patients to take a special phenylalanine-free formula. The formula contains protein, vitamins, minerals and extra calories, but no Phe. Several drug companies make these products.

VOICE TWO:

In the past, doctors often only suggested this diet while their patients were babies. Older children with PKU were told they could begin to eat all foods. But, studies have shown that many older PKU patients on a normal diet have problems with thinking and remembering. So, patients now are usually advised to stay on a low protein diet their whole lives.

There are emotional sides to any health problem. Children with the disorder sometimes feel cheated out of fun and tasty foods, like French fries. The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota suggests ways to help ease the situation faced by a PKU patient. Officials there say it helps to not place a lot of attention on food. Instead, invest time and energy on other things children enjoy like a sports activity or a musical skill.

VOICE ONE:

Also, the Mayo Clinic says to be sensitive around holiday celebrations. It is not unusual for holidays to include big meals. But, they do not have to. Holiday story telling or other activities could become more important.

PKU patients need monthly blood tests to check Phe levels. They also need to keep records of what they eat and how much. This way doctors can make changes to the patients’ diets as needed.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Lawan Davis, Soo Jee Han and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Pat Bodnar.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Steve Ember. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again at this time next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.