Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
See text below
Text:
This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
The World Health Organization is using a new
combination of drugs to treat human African
trypanosomiasis disease, also known as sleeping
sickness. The drugs nifurtimox and eflornithine will
be given out in Uganda and the Democratic Republic
of Congo.
Officials from the Drugs for Neglected Diseases
Initiative say the new treatment has fewer side
effects. It is also more effective and less costly
than the drugs traditionally used. In addition, the
new treatment reduces the number of injections
needed. And it shortens the amount of time patients
must spend in the hospital.
Sleeping sickness threatens millions of people in
thirty-six countries in Africa. Most live in poor
rural areas. The disease is caused by the
trypanosoma parasite.
It is spread to humans through the bite of infected
tsetse flies.
Common signs of sleeping sickness include fever,
headaches, extreme tiredness and pain in the muscles
and joints. Early identification of the disease may
be difficult because many infected people do not
show any immediate symptoms.
Over time, the parasites invade the central nervous
system. The disease causes sleep disorders, mental
confusion, personality changes, speech problems,
seizures and coma. If left untreated, sleeping
sickness kills.
The World Health Organization estimates that about
sixty thousand people are currently infected with
the disease. It develops in two different forms.
Trypanosoma gambiense is responsible for ninety
percent of the reported cases of sleeping sickness.
People infected with this form may develop the
disease over many years without any major symptoms.
The disease develops more quickly over a few weeks
or months in people infected with trypanosoma
rhodesiense.
Until now the drug melarsoprol was used to treat
patients in the advanced stage of sleeping sickness.
But the drug requires many painful injections
several times a day for several weeks.
It also causes bad side effects, some of which can
be deadly.
In Uganda, a new study has confirmed earlier
research linking the spread of sleeping sickness to
infected farm animals. The writers of the study have
called for stronger rules requiring cattle to be
treated before being sold at market.
The study was published in the Public Library of
Science.
And thats the VOA Special English Development
Report.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
