特别广播英语第 61 课：Heart Disease: Treat or Prevent?
心脏病：有了病才去治还是没病先预防-1

One of the greatest killers in the Western world is heart disease. 心脏病是西方世界的最大杀手之一。

The death rate from the disease has been increasing at an alarming speed for the past thirty years. 在最近三十年以前，心脏病的死亡率正在以惊人的速度上升。

Today in Britain, for example, about four hundred people a day die of heart disease. 例如，今天在英国每天大约有四百人死于心脏病。

Western health-care systems are spending huge sums of money on the surgical treatment of the disease.西方的各级卫生保健机构在心脏病的外科手术治疗方面正在耗费大笔的金钱。

This emphasis on treatment is clearly associated with the technological advances that have taken place in the past ten to fifteen years. 这种老是强调治疗的作法显然与最近十到十五年内技术的进步有很大关系。

In this time, modern technology has enabled doctors to develop new surgical techniques and procedures. 在这一段时期内，现代技术使医生们研制出了一些新的外科手术方法和程序。

Many operations that were considered impossible a few years ago are now performed every day in U.S.hospitals. 两三年前还认为是不可能做的很多手术，现在在美国的各大医院里每天都在做。

The result has been a rapid increase in heart surgery. 其结果就使对心脏实行外科手术的病例迅猛地在增强。

Although there in no doubt that a large number of people benefit from heart surgery, critics of our health-care systems point out that the emphasis on the surgical treatment of the disease has three clear disadvantages. 尽管有很多人从心脏外科手术中得到了好处，还是不容怀疑的；但是，对我们的医疗保健机构提出批评的人士都指出，强调用外科手术治疗心脏病的作法很明显有三大害处。