节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2012-06-16
难易度:Medium
关键字:treatment, side effect, combination, access, antibiotic, resistance,
prescribe
OK. Hope you had a great break.
Welcome back.
TB spreads quickly among people who are ill and who don't have regular access to
basic healthcare.
So if you work or spend time in prisons, hospitals, dormitories or homeless
shelters, visit your doctor on a regular basis to get tested.
Let's find out now how best to deal with TB as we wrap up the reading at the top
of page 34.
(Music).
Tuberculosis.
Experts suggest that the best way to deal with this problem is prevention.
Education is needed to ensure doctors prescribe the right medicines.
In addition, patients must not stop taking their medicine as soon as they feel
better.
While the fight against TB is a difficult one, there is hope.
Though millions of people contract TB each year, the disease is actually
becoming less common.
Much of this is due to a combination of factors.
Governmental and non-governmental agencies are targeting TB like never before.
This has led to improved access to basic healthcare and medicines for those who
are most affected.
It has also increased awareness of the risks of TB and effective ways to avoid
it.
All right.
So we've seen that you can take antibiotics to try and get rid of the bacteria
that causes TB.
But if you don't take all of your antibiotics, then you can develop antibiotic
resistance.
And what happens then?
Well, then you have to take another round of antibiotics that will be more
expensive and have negative side effects and could last up to two years.
OK, so. Now we're seeing that experts suggest that the best way to deal with...
with tuberculosis is prevention.
That's right.
Instead of taking care of the problem after it happens, they suggest prevention.
Now we see the P-R-E, the beginning of the word here, that means it comes
before.
So it means to help keep the disease from happening in the first place.
Yeah. There's actually a phrase we use in English.
You can stop something bad before it even happens; and that is prevention.
That's right.
So prevent this disease from happening.
Education is needed to ensure doctors prescribe the right medicines.
So first, doctors should be educated so they know how to help people who are
very... who could easily get the disease, who could be exposed to it more
readily.
So they need to have the right medicines to give them.
Yeah. They need to know what they're doing in order to prescribe the right
medicines.
Now that word "prescribe" means to say what medical treatments a certain person
should get.
And usually, doctors are the ones who do medical prescriptions.
That's right.
Now if you want an easy way to remember "prescribe," scribe means to write down.
So they're writing it down so that you can have the medicine.
OK. And so doctors need to know how to prescribe the right medicines in order to
treat tuberculosis.
In addition, doctors are not the only ones who need to be educated.
Patients must not stop taking their medicine as soon as they feel better.
Now we cannot emphasize this enough.
If you are on antibiotics, if you have been given a set of drugs, a set
treatment, finish it.
It does not matter if you feel fine, if you think you're doing so much better,
you need to finish the entire system or you're going to be in trouble.
That's right.
And this is true even if you just have a cold, if your doctor gives you
antibiotics, take all of them.
He is giving you a certain amount, not just to make sure you have enough.
He's giving you the right amount.
Take all of them.
Don't just stop when you feel OK.
Now that's not just for your own good.
It is because you can beat the entire bacteria, but it's also for people around
you.
You don't want that bacteria to get that antibiotic resistance so that the next
time somebody gets that kind of bacteria that... it can fight against it.
So it's to help not only yourself, but to protect the people around you as well.
Yes, help us all prevent tuberculosis.
Now while the fight against TB is a difficult one, there is hope.
So we've gone through all the problems with it, how hard it is to fight this
bacteria, but we're not giving up hope.
And that's a wonderful thing.
There is still hope.
There's still a light at the end of the tunnel if you will.
Yeah. There's still a chance for us to fight back.
Though millions of people do contract TB each year, the disease is actually
becoming less common.
So it still seems like a high number to us, but it's getting less.
That's right.
Now Kaylah, we've seen that there are a lot of people contracting this disease.
What does that mean to contract a disease?
Well, when you contract something, that means you get it.
So when we're talking about a disease - Oh, I contracted this flu bug, and now
I'm always sick.
So maybe to contract, that would be to get that drug... that disease.
And so that's we're talking about with tuberculosis.
Yeah. And that's happening actually a lot less now.
It's becoming less common.
And the reason of that is mostly due to a combination of factors.
So we say "due to," meaning because of, or it... as a result of a "combination,"
or combining - so multiple pieces together - of factors.
And "factor" meaning reasons.
There are different reasons.
One of those is governmental and non-governmental agencies are targeting TB like
never before.
So governmental - meaning they are led by a government - and non-governmental,
like the World Health Organization, are targeting.
They're pointing it out.
And they're trying to get rid of something very specific, in this case, TB.
Right. And this has led to improved access to basic healthcare and medicines for
those who are most affected.
That's right.
So "access," to have improved access, that means to have the ability to get to
something.
So people can get healthcare, can get that basic need, those basic medicines
that they will need in the future that can help them in their fight against
tuberculosis.
Exactly. So doing so has been able to increase the awareness of this disease.
And now we're able to talk about it a lot more, and we are more aware of the
risks of TB as well.
That's right.
So these people who are most affected have access to these kinds of healthcare
and these kinds of needs.
Well, it has also increased awareness of the risk of tuberculosis and effective
ways to avoid it.
So these are the combining factors between government and non-governmental
agencies working to help.
OK. Now that's all the time we have to talk about tuberculosis.
But I hope you've learned a lot about this disease and how to avoid it.
Now let's visit the Chat Room.
Are you OK, Bryan?
No, not really.
I've been fighting off this cold for over a week.
Well, I sure hope you feel better soon.
Say, you just mentioned fighting off your cold.
Why didn't you say you were fighting your cold?
Because I'm not just fighting it, I'm fighting it off.
I want it to go away and fast.
Fighting off a cold and fighting off an infection are both very common sayings.
I see. So fighting off, in this case, doesn't involve physical attack, but a
decision to struggle against a sickness?
Yes, that's right.
I've read a lot of books about the other kind of fighting, as in war.
Those books do talk about fighting off the enemy's attack.
Oh, sure.
That is the literal meaning to repel or push an enemy back.
Right. Could I also say the army is fighting back the enemy?
I think it's better if you say the army is fighting back against the enemy, or
fighting back the enemy's attack.
And there's a fight idiom I'll bet you know, Ken.
Fight fire with fire.
Hmm, actually, no.
But I'm guessing it has to do with fierce battles.
I suppose it could.
The basic meaning is that you treat your opponents the same way they treat you.
So if one army attacks very aggressively, the opponent will also fight back with
a lot of force?
That's the idea.
This idiom is used for all kinds of battles, legal battles, arguments and
athletic contests just to name a few.
There is usually some meanness involved.
I get it.
If you're going to play rough, then I'll play rough too.
Yes. And now it's time for me to defeat this mean cold.
(Chinese).
(Chinese).
And we have to say goodbye now.
Take care and bye-bye.
According to our lesson right now, billions of people are infected with TB.
But not everyone who is infected will become sick.
TB is not evenly distributed throughout the world, or even in industrialized
nations for that matter.
It mostly affects people who are sick, poor and without access to healthcare.
Finally, the best way to fight TB is through education and getting infected
people the medicines they need as soon as possible.
Friends, go out, get some fresh air this weekend.
And then join us Monday as we discuss Hallyu.
Take care.