DESEASES IN AFRICA (OUR 3rd ORAL PRESENTATION)

TRANSCRIPTION...

Hi class! Today we're going to talk about diseases in Africa. To understand better the reasons why people there live in so bad conditions we're going to explain you the beginning of the social problems in Africa, the causes of all, and the solutions used to help the African people (as organizations)

Do you know why AFRICA is called THE THIRD WORLD???

If you don’t know we're going to explain it now!

The social problems in Africa began during the XIX while the Industrial Revolution was taking place in the other parts of the world.
In Africa live approximately 750 Million people. This continent is one of the richest continents of the whole world because it has got a lot of petrol, diamonds, gold, cotton and cacao. Because of the lack of industries Africa has to export all their raw materials (cotton, petrol...) without receiving much in exchange. This fact has been happening since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution until nowadays. THAT’s the reason of the poverty and social problems in Africa.

As a result of this situation they haven't got much food, the mortality encrase, there’s child explotation, reduction of life expectancy, malnutrition (specially child malnutrition) and they live in very bad resources ------> all those facts cause DISEASES and our aim is explain the most seriously of them to you.

Diseases can be transmitted by insects (as mosquitoes), through food and water and through intimate contact.

MALARIA: Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, which is transmitted by the bites of infected mosquitoes. In the human body, the parasites multiply in the liver, and then infect red blood cells.
Symptoms of malaria include fever, headache, and vomiting, and usually appear between 10 and 15 days after the mosquito bite. If is not treated, malaria can quickly become life by disrupting the blood supply to vital organs.

YELLOW FEVER: Yellow fever is one of the most common diseases transmitted by insects (in this case a mosquito) in Africa. Some time ago the yellow fever was only transmitted by one type of mosquito and because of climatic change and the evolution of the characteristics of the different mosquitoes, now all types of mosquitoes are able to transmit this virus.
The symptoms of the yellow fever are yellow coloured eyes, yellow skin (but not like the Simpsons), the fever you all know but extremely high.

CHOLERA: Cholera is an intestinal infection caused by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium “Vibrio cholerae”. It has a short incubation period, from less than one day to five days, and causes painless and watery diarrhoea which can causes quickly a severe dehydration and even death if treatment is not given early. Vomiting also occurs in most patients.

HEPATITIS A: is an acute infection of the liver caused of a virus transmitted trough water and food. Here, were we live, there’s no risk of infection because our food is controlled and our water is clean but in Africa it isn’t like that because of the lack of resources. An another thing we have here are vaccines.

HEPATITIS B: Hepatitis B is a viral infection that attacks the liver. The virus is transmitted through contact with the blood or other body fluids of an infected person. Hepatitis B virus can cause an acute illness with symptoms that last several weeks, including yellowing of the skin and eyes or vomiting and abdominal pain. People can take several months to a year to recover from the symptoms. Hepatitis B is preventable with a safe and effective vaccine.

AIDS: I think it is one of the biggest problems related to diseases in the world but in Africa more than 75% of the Africans are infected of AIDS. As you all know AIDS is a disease transmitted by intimate contact. Here in our area (Europe) AIDS is known but is not so usual as in Africa is. The cause is again the same as before THE BAD RESOURCES, because there they haven't got any money for condoms or things like that.

MENINGOCOCCAL DISEASE: It's another disease transmitted through intimate contact but not like you'll think with sex; the virus of the meningococcal disease is situated or habited in the area of the nose and of the throat, so you can be infected kissing or simply sharing a glass of water or eating from the same apple. Here in Europe we can do those things because there is no risk of infection, (we are vaccinated) but in Africa they use to share all what they have without being worry of diseases.

OTHER DISEASES:

SCHIOSTOSOMIASIS: Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by flatworms of the genus Schistosoma. Larval forms of the parasites, which are released by freshwater snails, penetrate the skin of people in the water. In the body, the larvae develop into adult schistosomes, which live in the blood vessels. Some of them pass out of the body in the urine or faeces. Others are trapped in body tissues, causing an immune reaction.

RABIES: Is a disease that is transmitted to humans from animals) that is caused by a virus. Rabies infects domestic and wild animals, and is spread to people through close contact with infected saliva (via bites or scratches). Once symptoms of the disease develop, rabies is fatal.

Apart from volunteer doctors who go there to try to cure them and to help them to be able to live in better resources, there are many organizations which try to help them in all the aspects: health, economic problems, education, food... A great example of it is NGO: for example nowadays they’re building there new schools to give education to the children and hospitals to take care of the illnest people.

Anyway, we also can become a great help to African people. We can give them a better life with not much effort. How can we do it? It’s easy. We can be „godparents“to African children. To do it we only have to choose one of the organizations which are in our country. Then we have to subscribe there, and paying a really low quantity of money per month, we will be able to give education, food and clothes to children until they will be 14. Also, we can participate in charities; send them our old clothes or our old toys, and much more. And I can assure that with few acts like these we can help a lot of people giving them a better life and make them a little happier.


MY REFLECTION...

This was our third oral presentation, so this time we had to show that we had improved compared with the other times. We chose a really interesting topic and we searched much information about it. We knew that it would be a quite difficult presentation because we had to talk about diseases and it means we had to use a scientific vocabulary. Also we must know all the symptoms and cures by heart.

In class, I got really nervous because this time we had only the key words in the PowerPoint and I hadn’t got any paper between my hands. I studied hard for this presentation because I wanted to do a good work and be able to get a nice mark, but I think I don’t did it as well as I expected.

As I said before, there were some words really difficult to learn and they were all essential to talk about those diseases. Maybe I wouldn’t have got so nervous if I had studied some days before. I’m quite happy with my pronunciation (I worked quite a lot with my speaking) but I know that I still have to improve it very much.

Laura and I couldn’t study together, and perhaps we didn’t know exactly when our turn to talk was.
The worst moment for me was when I was talking about an illness and I completely forgot the key words! Then, I was too nervous because I realized I hadn’t written them down in the paper!!

The thing that I liked the most was our PowerPoint, we used very visual images and we only wrote the key words.

Anyway, I enjoyed this work very much because I learnt a lot about diseases absolutely unknown for me and I can assure that I studied hard for it!
I hope with all my own to do best presentations the next year and improve my pronunciation! But especially, the thing I want to change first is…my nervous! I hope to be able my next year to control them properly.

In spite of my nervous and the forgotten words I think we did a nice work together!