Drug Reactions — a Major Cause of Death
　　Adverse drug reactions may cause the deaths of over 100,000 US hospital patients each year, making them a leading cause of death nationwide1, according to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
　　“The incidence of serious and fatal adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in US hospitals was found to be extremely high,” say researchers at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada.
　　They carried on an analysis of 39 ADR-related studies2 at US hospitals over the past 30 years and defined an ADR as “any harmful, unintended, and undesired effect of a drug which occurs at doses used in humans for prevention, diagnosis, or therapy.”3
　　An average 6.7% of all hospitalized patients experience an ADR every year, according to the reasearchers.They estimate that "in 1994, overall 2，216 000 hospitalized patients had serious ADRs, and 106,000 had fatal ADRs." This means that ADRs may rank as the fourth single largest cause of death in America.4
　　And these incidence figures are probably conservative, the researchers add, since their ADR definition did not include outcomes linked to problems in drug administration, overdoses, drug abuse, and therapeutic failures5.
　　The control of ADRs also means spending more money. One US study estimated the overall cost of treating ADRs at up to $4 billion per year.
　　Dr. David Bates of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, believes that healthcare workers need to pay more attention to the problem, especially since many ADRs are easily preventable. "When a patient develops an allergy or sensitivity, it is often not recorded,"Bates notes6, "and patients receive drugs to which they have known allergies or sensitivities with disturbing frequency.”7 He. believes computerized surveillance systems still works-in-progress at many of the nation's hospitals8 — should help cut down the frequency of these types of errors.
　　词汇：
　　reaction 反应，作用
　　conservative 保守的，守旧的;稳当的
　　adverse 不利的，有害的
　　incidence 发生率;发生
　　define .解释，给……下定义
　　diagnosis .诊断(法)，诊断结论
　　sensitivity 过敏(性);敏感
　　hospitalize 送进……医院治疗
　　surveillance 监督，检查，监管
　　注释：
　　1.making them a leading cause of death nationwide：使它们在全国范围内成为导致死亡最重的原因之一的原因之一
　　2.ADR-related studies：涉及用药不良反应的研究
　　3.any harmful, unintended, and undesired effect of a drug for prevention, diagnosis, or therapy：用于人体预防、诊断及治疗目的的药物剂量造成的任何有害、非故意和不良的后果
　　4.This means that ADRs may rank as the fourth single largest cause of death in America这意味着用药不良反应在美国可列为引起死亡的第四大单项因素。动词短语“rank as”意为“排行为”，“列为”。
　　5.since their ADR definition did not include outcomes linked to problems in drug administration, overdoses, drug abuse, and therapeutic failures：因为他们对用药不良反应下的定义不包括错误服药、过量用药、滥用药物和治疗失败所造成的后果。
　　6.“When a patient develops an allergy or sensitivity, it is often not recorded,”Bates notes...：“当一个病人产生了(药物)过敏时，往往没有记录下来，”贝茨指出……实际上，“allergy”和"sensitivity "是“药物过敏”的不同说法。句中"note"的意思是"记下"、"写下"或"指出"。
　　7.and patients receive drugs to which they have known allergies or sensitives with disturbing frequency：这是整个并列句的第二部分。其中，主语为patients，谓语是receive，宾语是drugs，后面有定语从句to which they have known allergies or sensitivities作为它的修饰语，宾语部分的意思是：“已知道他们对其有过敏反应的药物”：最后是一个借此短语with disturbing frequency作方式状语，字面意思是的是：以使人不安的频率。整句话意为：令人不安的是，病人常常服用那些他们已知道对其有变态反应和过敏反应的药物。
　　8.still works-in-progress at many of the nation’s hospitals：……在国内的许多医院里还是一个正在逐步建立起来的措施……
　　练习：
　　1.Researchers at the University of Toronto believe that _________.
　　A　ADRs have caused medical problems, though they seldom lead to death.
　　B　ADRs have very often caused patients to die in Canada.
　　C　ADRs have caused many deaths in America over the past 30 years.
　　D　it is easy to prevent ADRs from happening.
　　2.The investigators say that _________.
　　A　67 patients out of 100 in every American hospital die from ADRs each year.
　　B　67 patients out of 100 in every American hospital experience an ADR each year.
　　C　6.7% of all hospitalized patients in America experience ADRs each year on average.
　　D　6.7% of all hospitalized patients in Canada experience ADRs each year on average.
　　3.An American research estimates that the total sum of money spent in treating ADRs each year is as much as _________.
　　A　$40,000,000,000.
　　B　$4,000,000,000.
　　C　$400,000,000.
　　D　$40,000,000.
　　4.The Canadian investigators think that the ADR incidence figures from their research _________.
　　A　are surely very exact.
　　B　are probably higher than the real amount.
　　C　are perhaps less than the real amount.
　　D　are probably groundless.
　　5.According to Dr. David Bates, hospitals in America _________.
　　A　are not paying enough attention to possibilities of ADR happenings.
　　B　have never tried to use computers to prevent ADRs from happening.
　　C　do not use those drugs which will cause side effects to their patients.
　　D　know that many ADRs are easily preventable.
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