1. Focus on HIV prevents us from curing a billion people, say scientists
Level 3 Advanced
1 Key words
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text.
ailment plight parasite symptom scourge
herd monopolize eradicate distort combat
1. If you _______________________ a problem such as a disease, you get rid of it completely.
2. A _______________________ is something that causes a lot of trouble or harm.
3. A _______________________ is an animal (or living organism) that lives in or on another type of animal and
feeds on it.
4. An _______________________ is an illness or a disease.
5. If you _______________________ a problem, you take action to try to stop it from happening or
becoming worse.
6. If you _______________________ something, you prevent other people from using it.
7. A _______________________ is a sign that someone has a particular illness.
8. If you _______________________ information, you change it so that it is no longer true or accurate.
9. A _______________________ is a large group of animals of the same type that live and move about together.
10. A _______________________ is a sad, serious or difficult situation.
2 Diseases
Match the diseases with their definitions. Check your answers in the text.
1. trachoma a. a disease that can cause brain damage in children
2. bilharzia b. a disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes
3. elephantiasis c. an infectious eye disease
4. sleeping sickness d. a severe thickening of the skin and tissues, especially in the legs
5. malaria e. a disease transmitted by flies that can cause coma and death
D •
TE DE E
SI A L
EB LO B
W N IA
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2010
M W P
O DO O
FR BE C
N T
O
NEWS LESSONS / Focus on HIV prevents us from curing a billion people, say scientists / Advanced
O
H
•P
CA

2. Focus on HIV prevents us from curing a billion people, say scientists
Level 3 Advanced
Focus on HIV prevents us from curing by tsetse flies to humans from infected cattle.
a billion people, say scientists Symptoms include fever and headaches that can
lead to coma and death if not treated.
Experts say governments treat ‘big name’
ailments like HIV and malaria when many which 4 “If you do not try to control sleeping sickness you
kill far more people in the developing world could can end up with horrendous epidemics,” said
be eradicated cheaply Professor Sue Welburn of Edinburgh University,
Robin McKie who has been working on the condition in
7 November, 2010 Uganda. “However, its symptoms are often
confused with malaria. Victims are then given
1 More than a billion victims of some of the world’s the wrong drugs. When those don’t work, it is
most pernicious ailments could be treated with assumed they have HIV and they are sent home
drugs that have annual costs of less than 30p to die.”
per person. However, the plight of these people
is being neglected because resources are being 5 Scientists have recently found a cheaper way to
monopolized in developing countries by three deal with sleeping sickness: tackling the animals
major conditions – HIV, malaria and TB – even that act as reservoirs for the disease parasite.
though these diseases infect a much smaller “Animals are quite tolerant of the parasite, which
fraction of their populations. This is the warning exists in several different types,” said Welburn.
of experts who say an opportunity to rid the “Only one type of parasite can infect humans,
however, and recently we have developed a
planet of some of its worst scourges – including
blood test to detect it in cattle. It takes only a few
sleeping sickness, elephantiasis and river
hours to spot infected animals.”
blindness – is being missed because of distorted
health policy goals. 6 Once an infected herd is identified it can be
treated with a drug that kills the parasite and
2 “This is not the fault of pharmaceutical
costs 30p per animal. Reservoirs of sleeping
companies,” said Professor David Molyneux of
sickness parasites can be eradicated. “So far we
the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. “They
have treated half a million cattle in Uganda and
have made available billions of doses of key
have halted the spread of sleeping sickness,”
drugs. Our problem is that we are not providing
said Welburn, head of Edinburgh University’s
the impetus or the means for getting these
Global Health Academy, which tackles
drugs to disease sufferers. People at policy level
neglected diseases.
think that only malaria, TB and HIV exist in the
Third World. This is not true. Neglected tropical 7 Setting up the necessary infrastructure, by
diseases as a whole – like sleeping sickness or combining medical and veterinary services, is
bilharzia – cause more of a burden than these proving difficult and is typical of the problems
big-name diseases but are being ignored.” of trying to tackle neglected tropical diseases.
Other ailments, which in total affect hundreds
3 Many of these diseases, such as river blindness
of millions but which could be tackled cheaply
and elephantiasis (a thickening of the skin and
and speedily, include bilharzia and trachoma.
tissues, especially in the legs), do not kill outright
Bilharzia is caused by a waterborne parasite and
but leave victims unable to fend for themselves.
can cause brain damage in children. Trachoma
Others result in death, but only if left untreated
is the world’s leading cause of infectious
for long periods. The health problems posed
blindness and a major source of poverty.
by these conditions will be highlighted at an
international conference in Geneva. It will focus 8 Most major pharmaceutical companies have
on neglected zoonotic diseases – ailments that pledged to provide, at no cost, billions of doses
are transmitted from animals. These include of the drugs needed to combat these diseases.
sleeping sickness, a parasitic disease spread But many G8 governments have failed to provide
D •
TE DE E
SI A L
EB LO B
W N IA
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2010
M W P
O DO O
FR BE C
N T
O
NEWS LESSONS / Focus on HIV prevents us from curing a billion people, say scientists / Advanced
O
H
•P
CA

3. Focus on HIV prevents us from curing a billion people, say scientists
Level 3 Advanced
the means or impetus to get those drugs to the
people who need them, a failure which Molyneux
says is a major one.”If we can’t deliver free
drugs to poor people, I don’t think there is much
else we can do in international health,” he said.
© Guardian News & Media 2010
First published in The Observer, 07/11/10
3 Comprehension check
Choose the best answer according to the text
1. Why are diseases such as sleeping sickness, elephantiasis and river blindness still common?
a. because drug companies have not yet found a treatment for these diseases
b. because resources are directed to the treatment of other diseases
c. because it is much too expensive to treat diseases like these
2. What are zoonotic diseases?
a. diseases only found in animals
b. diseases transmitted from animals to humans
c. diseases commonly found in zoo animals
3. What is the cheapest way to deal with sleeping sickness?
a. to give victims drugs intended to treat malaria
b. to treat the animals that carry the parasite that causes the disease
c. to give victims a special blood test
4. Why have the necessary drugs not been given to the poor who need them?
a. because G8 governments have not yet provided a way to get the drugs to the people who need them
b. because it is too difficult and expensive to deliver the drugs to infected areas
c. because there are too many other things to do in international health
4 Find the word
Find the following words and phrases and the text.
1. an adjective meaning very dangerous or harmful (para 1)
2. a noun meaning a force that helps something to happen or develop more quickly (para 2)
3. an adverb meaning completely or at one time in a single process (para 3)
4. a three-word verb meaning look after yourself without help from anyone else (para 3)
5. a two-word noun meaning an insect that spreads sleeping sickness (para 3)
6. an adjective meaning extremely bad or shocking (para 4)
7. a two-word phrasal verb meaning to organize or plan a system (para 7)
8. a verb used mainly in journalism meaning to promise seriously and publicly to do something (para 8)
D •
TE DE E
SI A L
EB LO B
W N IA
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2010
M W P
O DO O
FR BE C
N T
O
NEWS LESSONS / Focus on HIV prevents us from curing a billion people, say scientists / Advanced
O
H
•P
CA

4. Focus on HIV prevents us from curing a billion people, say scientists
Level 3 Advanced
5 Verb + noun collocations
Match the verbs in the left-hand column with the nouns and noun phrases in the right-hand column.
1. eradicate a. resources
2. miss b. an infrastructure
3. set up c. an opportunity
4. monopolize d. a new test
5. pose e. a disease
6. develop f. a problem
6 Word-building
Complete the sentences using the correct form of the word in brackets at the end of each sentence.
1. Many tropical diseases can result in death if left ________________________ for long periods. [TREAT]
2. Trachoma is a major cause of ________________________ in developing countries. [POOR]
3. Certain diseases could be treated cheaply and ________________________. [SPEED]
4. Sleeping sickness is a ________________________ disease. [PARASITE]
5. Some animals are quite ________________________ of the sleeping sickness parasite. [TOLERATE]
7 Discussion
Should resources be diverted from tackling HIV, malaria and TB to tropical diseases which cause poverty
in developing countries? Why? Why not?
D •
TE DE E
SI A L
EB LO B
W N IA
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2010
M W P
O DO O
FR BE C
N T
O
NEWS LESSONS / Focus on HIV prevents us from curing a billion people, say scientists / Advanced
CA O
H
•P

5. Focus on HIV prevents us from curing a billion people, say scientists
Level 3 Advanced
KEY
1 Key words 4 Find the word
1. eradicate 1. pernicious
2. scourge 2. impetus
3. parasite 3. outright
4. ailment 4. fend for yourself
5. combat 5. tsetse fly
6. monopolize 6. horrendous
7. symptom 7. set up
8. distort 8. pledge
9. herd
10. plight
5 Verb + noun collocations
2 Diseases 1. e
2. c
1. c 3. b
2. a 4. a
3. d 5. f
4. e 6. d
5. b
6 Word-building
3 Comprehension check
1. untreated
1. b 2. poverty
2. b 3. speedily
3. b 4. parasitic
4. a 5. tolerant
D •
TE DE E
SI A L
EB LO B
W N IA
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2010
M W P
O DO O
FR BE C
T O
NEWS LESSONS / Focus on HIV prevents us from curing a billion people, say scientists / Advanced
O
H
N
•P
CA