bed-ridden 復習

厚生労働省の調査によると、日常生活に支障が生まれるほどの疲労や倦怠感が続く「慢性疲労症候群」の患者の３割が寝たきりや、それに近い症状を訴えていることがわかりました。

30% of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome are bed-ridden: survey

Thirty percent of people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) are bed-ridden or in similar condition, according to the first survey of its kind by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry -- with health conditions so serious that many patients cannot move, or must stay in bed after doing household chores or going to hospital.

The number of people with CFS is estimated at about 300,000 across Japan. The causes of the disorder are not known, although infectious diseases and abnormalities of the central nervous system in the brain are cited as probable triggers.

While the illness has been known in Japan as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), groups of patients and their supporters call it myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), pointing out that sufferers are not simply tired or lazy.

Because CFS is not classified as an intractable disease, however, patients are not entitled to state subsidies.

A medical team including Kazuo Yudo, a professor at St. Marianna University School of Medicine, was commissioned by the health ministry to carry out the survey from last autumn to January this year. The team sent questionnaires to 251 patients who were receiving treatment at medical institutions across the country -- 56 men and 195 women, whose average age was 42. Based on the patients' responses to the questionnaires, the team then went on to telephone or interview them in person.

（後略）

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150502p2a00m0na020000c.html

“bed-ridden”をとりあげます。これはこの記事で大きく取り上げられている「寝たきり」にあたる表現です。（『Wisdom英和辞典第３版』三省堂）によると、「bed-ridden：（高齢・病気で）寝たきりの」と説明がされています。また「ridden」は「…に悩まされた」という複合語を作ることができ、「debt-ridden：借金に苦しむ」、「class[crime]-ridden society：犯罪[階級主義]が蔓延する社会」といった用例が辞書にはありました。

つなぎの役割を果たしているハイフン（‐：hyphen）は複合語、接頭辞、数字や分数を示すことができ、用法は様々です。今回の複合語をハイフンで結ぶのは、結合したものが見慣れない場合に誤解を招く場合であり、それが形容詞として用いられることが多いこともわかりました。（Chris）