這是傳奇人物比爾·蓋茨十天前在其個人網站 gatesnotes.com 上釋出的一篇年度總結，同 2013 年末一樣，他用這種方式來做年終總結。今年，我們有哪些好消息？
我寫了一些略微特别的東西來結束2013年：一份你可能已經錯過的好消息的清單。
我想，以那樣的方式為這一年劃上句号，是一個非常棒的方式，而且人們似乎很願意看到我們的世界在一天天變得更好。
今年，我還要這麼做。
不能否認，在美國以及其他國家，2014 年是動蕩的一年。但是還有好消息值得我們去慶祝：相比以前，更多的孩子得以存活；面對全世界最緻命的疾病，我們在不斷進步。
衡量世界是否進步，有幾種重要的方法。通過這些方法我們看得到，2014 年又是進步的一年。
looking up
i ended 2013 by compiling something slightly unusual: a list of some of the good news you might have missed. i thought it was a pretty good note to end the year on, and people seemed to like reading about some of the ways the world is becoming a better place. this year, i thought i’d do it again.
of course, we can’t ignore the fact that it’s been a turbulent year, in the united states and many other countries. but it’s worth taking a moment to celebrate some of the good news too. more children are surviving than ever before. we’re making progress against some of the world’s deadliest diseases. these are some of the most fundamental ways to measure the world’s progress—and by that measure, 2014 was definitely another good year.
壹有更多孩子過上了他們的 5 歲生日
對我來說，判斷世界是否進步最好的方式，就是看看有多少孩子的死亡其實可以避免。如今，能活到 5 歲的孩子，比以往任何時代都要多。
到今年為止，已經連續 42 年，兒童的死亡率在不斷下降，這個數字不止是在持續下降，下降速度也出人意料地迅速。
《經濟學人》雜志今年 9 月發表的一篇文章稱：自 2001 年以來，我們已經挽救了 1 360 萬孩子的生命。不難想像，這是世界進步的标志。
1、more fifth birthdays than ever before
to me, one of the best ways to measure progress is to look at how many children are dying of preventable causes. and today, more kids are living to see their fifth birthday than ever before. this year, for at least the 42nd year in a row, the child mortality rate has fallen. and it’s not just moving in the right direction—it’s falling faster than anyone expected. the economist ran a great article about this in september, where it estimated that just since 2001, the world has saved 13.6 million children’s lives. it’s hard to think of a better sign the world is improving.
貳裡程碑與艾滋病的鬥争
對于 hiv 病毒感染者的治療，我們已經取得了非常不錯的成果。但是前些年，不得不說，我們落在了 hiv 後面：雖然越來越多的 hiv 攜帶者開始接受治療，但卻總有更多的人感染了 hiv 病毒。
但今非昔比，本月新釋出的資料報道顯示：2013 年，接受治療的患者數量首次超過新增感染者。
為什麼會這樣？
治療不僅可以讓病毒攜帶者生存下去，還可以大幅度減少病毒傳播的可能性。
如流行病學家所說，這是一個轉折點。雖然離消滅艾滋病還有一段很長的路要走。但是，這是裡程碑式的一年。
2、we hit a big milestone in fighting aids
the world has done an impressive job of providing treatment to people living with hiv. but for years we were falling behind, because for all the people who started getting treatment, even more would become infected. not anymore, though. new data released this month show that 2013 was the first year when more people started getting treatment than became infected with hiv. why does that matter? because treating people not only keeps them alive, it also dramatically reduces the odds that they will pass the virus on to anyone else. as the epidemiologists say, we can start to bend the curve of the disease. we still have a long way to go before we can declare the end of aids, but this is a big milestone.
叁有更多孩子注射了輪狀病毒疫苗
上世紀 90 年代末，我讀到一篇文章，每年有數十萬兒童死于輪狀病毒引起的腹瀉。我不敢相信，竟有如此可怕的疾病，可以帶走那麼多孩子的生命，而我對此疾病卻一無所知。但是對于輪狀病毒的報道并不多，因為在發達國家，這并不是緻命的疾病，而這個世界總是忽略隻有窮人才會得的疾病。
從許多方面講，輪狀病毒是我投身于全球健康事業的催化劑。事實上，這是我們基金會最早投入的項目之一。
從那以後，由于研發出了既便宜又有效的疫苗，喪生于輪狀病毒的孩子數量已經減少了将近一半。今天，這種疫苗已經惠及到更多的孩子。比如在印度，輪狀病毒每年奪走 8 萬個孩子的生命。今年印度政府決定免費給孩子們接種這種疫苗。
同時，藥廠也在努力做出更便宜的疫苗，為的是讓更多家庭負擔得起接種疫苗的費用。
3、rotavirus vaccine is reaching more kids than ever
when i read an article in the late 1990s that mentioned a diarrheal disease called rotavirus killed hundreds of thousands of kids a year, i couldn’t believe something i’d never even heard of was killing that many children. but rotavirus doesn’t get much press because it’s almost never deadly in rich countries—and the world tends to ignore diseases that only affect the world’s poorest people. in many ways, rotavirus was a catalyst for my commitment to global health—in fact, one of our foundation’s first grants supported efforts against rotavirus. since then, the number of kids dying from this illness has been cut nearly in half thanks to a cheap and effective vaccine. and today, that vaccine is reaching more kids than ever before. for example in india, where rota kills nearly 80,000 children a year, the government decided this year to deliver the vaccine for free to poor children. and manufacturers there are working on a more affordable vaccine that could reach even more children in the coming years.
肆結核病治療終于有所突破
對于結核治療的研究，我們一直很落後。
結核一直是導緻人類死亡的重大原因，遺憾的是，目前的治療方案并不完善——尤其是耐藥性結核。近幾十年來，一直停滞不前。
是以，今年上半年，一種治療結核病的新方案在前期試驗中已取得良好效果，這個消息，很是讓人興奮。
現在，這個方案已經進入大型臨床試驗階段。如果新的治療方案可以得以推廣，耐藥性結核病的治療時間将大大縮短，并且可以節省貧窮地區數十億的醫療保健支出。
4、a tuberculosis breakthrough—finally
the world is way overdue for a better tuberculosis treatment. tb is one of the world’s leading causes of death, and our existing treatments are inadequate—especially for drug resistant forms of the disease. but efforts to improve them have been stalled for decades. so it’s a big deal that earlier this year, scientists announced that a new tb treatment regimen has proven effective in early-phase research. from here, the drug regimen goes on to a large clinical trial to confirm the results. if this new treatment regimen pans out, it could dramatically reduce the time it takes to cure drug-resistant tb and save poor countries billions of dollars in health-care costs.
伍對抗小兒麻痹的經驗讓奈及利亞驅逐埃博拉病毒
今年，新聞媒體對于奈及利亞鋪天蓋地報道，焦點主要集中在兩件事上：埃博拉和恐怖襲擊。
兩件可怕的事卻掩蓋了這樣一個事實：從全球健康角度來看，奈及利亞的 2014 年其實是一個好年頭。
世界上有三個國家還沒有消滅小兒麻痹症：奈及利亞、巴基斯坦和阿富汗，但是我認為，奈及利亞即将從該名單上消失。
奈及利亞今年報道的小兒麻痹症病例隻有 6 例，而去年有 50 多例。更難能可貴的是，為了對抗小兒麻痹症，奈及利亞已經完成了很多基礎設施，這讓他們更快、更容易地控制埃博拉病毒。
事實上，奈及利亞成功驅除埃博拉病毒的案例正是其他國家處理這種突發疾病的絕好範例。
5、nigeria’s fight against polio helped its fight against ebola
a lot of the media coverage about nigeria this year focused on two things: ebola and terrorism. both are frightening, and they masked the fact that from a global health perspective, nigeria actually had a pretty good year. although it’s one of only three countries that have never been free from polio (pakistan and afghanistan are the other two), i don’t think it will be on that list for long. nigeria has reported only six cases of polio this year, compared to more than 50 last year. what’s more, the infrastructure nigeria has built to fight polio actually made it easier for them to swiftly contain ebola. the fact that nigeria is now ebola free is a great example of how doing the work to fight things like fighting polio also leaves countries better prepared to deal with outbreaks of other diseases.
陸展望我們的美好未來
再提一件事：一月份，melinda 和我将發表下一封年度信（annual letter）。這一次，我們把目光投向 2030 年。我們将涉足好幾個領域，從健康到農業再到銀行業，尤其是在特别貧窮的地區，在這些領域将發生真正的劇變。
6、looking ahead
one more thing: this january, melinda and i will publish our annual letter. this year, we’re looking ahead to 2030. we’ll be writing about a few areas—from health to farming and banking—where life will really change, especially for people in some of the world’s poorest places. (spoiler alert: we think there’s a lot more progress ahead.) if you’d like to get an e-mail notice when the letter is out, you can sign up below.
原文釋出時間為：2014-12-29
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