Exercise 1 page 62

a occur
b recover
c contract
d infected
e prevention
f outbreak
g treatment
h factor
Exercise 6 page 64
1 A vaccine that worked well last year may not be effective this year.
2 A lot of people don’t want to have a vaccine that might not work.
3 People spread diseases before they know they have them.
4 It would be impossible to set up a system for checking if people have a disease.
5 It would have a terrible effect on the economy.
6 It would stop a lot of people going to work, and it could separate families.
Teacher: throughout history, there have been many pandemics around the world: measles,
malaria, cholera, the flu. So how does a common disease turn from an outbreak into a
pandemic? Any ideas?
S1: People’s genaral health and how close they live to each other can be major factors in the
spread of disease, can’t they?
S2: yeah, so goverments need to make sure people are in good health and live in good
conditions to stop disease from spreading.
T: well, that’s a good idea, but there’s a limit to what goverments can d, especially in times of
economic difficulty.
S2: and goverments don’t always have the power to say exactly how everyone can live.
T: so what factors do you think would make country at a high risk for a pandemic?
S3: well, countries with large populations are probably at risk, especially where large
numbers of people live close together.
S1: and countries where a lot of international travelers pass through, like the U.K and other
countries in dark and medium blue on the map.
T: that’s right. The countries most at risk of pandemic these days are wealthier countries like
the U.K, south korea, the netherlands, and germany. What do thosr countries have in
common?
S2: they’re not all large countries but they do all have large cities with big populations.
S1; and they’re all places where a lot of international travelers might go out. Thay have a lot
of airports and potentially thousands of people coming in every day from all over the world.
T: correct. If you look at those countries in light blue, they’re at a medium or low risk for a
pandemic because they have less dense populations less international travel, fewer bordors,
ect. Ok, so imagine you’re an advisor to your goverment. You want to protect your country
from a pandemic. What should you do?
S1: you should give everyone a vaccine.
T: a vaccine. Oke, good idea. Can anyone explain what that is?
S2: it’s a kind of medicine, isn’t it?
T: yes, sort of. Most medicines are given to patients after they have the illness, to help them
recover, but a vacccine is difference. A vaccine provides disease prevention. If people get the
flu vaccine, they often don’t become infected. So if we wanted to avoid pandemics, then
goverments would need to implement vaccination programs for common diseases, wouldn’t
they?
S3: the goverments should force everyone to have vaccines. They should give a vaccine to
people as soon as an outbreak occurs because prevention is generally much easier than
treatment. When goverments focus on the prevention of disease, pandemics become very
rare.
S2: I’m not sure I agree. The trouble is organisms that cause disease, like bacteria or viruses,
change every year. So the vaccine that worked rreally well year may not be effective this
year.
S1: there’s another thing to consider too: a lot of people don’t want to have a vaccine that
might not work. The goverment can’t force people to get a vaccine, can it?
T: well, I don’t think any goverments do, but in the event of a pandemic, they definitely
encourage people to get it, and a lot of people do. People don’t want to contract a disease, do
they? So other than vaccinstion, what other ways are there of stopping the spread of disease?
S1: international travel is a big risk to a disease spreading quickly. We shouldn’t allow people
with disease into the country.
S3: I’m not sure I agree. The trouble is most people spread diseases before they even know
they have them.