II. Independent Work: who. Pandemics and Tamif lu

Exercise 1. Read the text.

WHO

Many people do not know what these three letters mean. They even do not read WHO correctly. They read [hu:] but it is ['dAblju:'eitf ou] and it means World Health Organization. WHO was founded in 1948.

In 1946 the United Nations held an International Health Conference in New York. There the Constitution of WHO was signed by 61 countries. Now there are more than 125 member states. Membership is open to all countries.

WHO activities take many forms:

• strengthening national health services,

• preparing more and better health workers,

• controlling or eradicating epidemic diseases,

• protecting mother and child health,

• Improving sanitation and water supply,

-- and making all other efforts to raise health levels.

One of the main services carried out by WHO is the service of epidemic warnings. The five main world epidemics of history - plague, cholera, smallpox, typhus and yellow fever - are still a great danger in our time of fast sea and air travel.

WHO gathers information and broadcasts it daily by radio to health authorities, ports, airports and ships at sea. WHO also informs national health services about outbreaks of viral diseases such as influenza and poliomyelitis.

Besides an epidemic information WHO also provides services which are needed by all the countries, such as international quarantine measures, world health statistics, international standardization of medicines and vaccines, development of medical research and technical publication programmes.

The daily work of the World Health Organization is carried out by a medical and administrative staff of a great number of international officers from different countries. These officers are stationed at headquarters (HQS) in Geneva, in Regional Offices, or with Special Centers working in every continent.

Exercise 2. Find English equivalents in the text.

1. Конституція ВООЗ була підписана 61 країною.

2. Членство у ВООЗ доступно всім країнам.

3. ВООЗ інформує національні служби охорони здоров'я про спалахи вірусних інфекцій.

4. Щоденна робота ВООЗ проводиться медичним і адміністративним апаратом службовців із різних країн.

Exercise 3. Answer the questions.

1. What is WHO?

2. What are the activities of WHO?

3. What is one of the main services carried out by WHO?

4. Where is the daily work of WHO carried out?

Exercise 4. Can you name any deadly infectious diseases that have spread around the world?

Exercise 5. Read the text.

Pandemics and Tamiflu

When someone who has flu sneezes nearby, you take tiny droplets of their saliva into your lungs. The droplets contain viruses that are looking for a new home. They get into your lungs and then into your blood, and can quickly take over your whole body, using it as a factory in which they can reproduce.

At any time, a deadly bacterium or a virus can become very successful and spread across the world, killing millions of human beings. When this happens it is called a 'pandemic'.

There was a pandemic in 1918. An influenza virus called H1N1, or 'Spanish flu', killed between 50 and 100 million people. More people died from H1N1 than were killed in the First World War.

A letter from a doctor in a military camp in 1918 describes the situation:

" it is only a few hours until death comes. It is horrible. We have been averaging about 100