Texto para aquestão

ASK THE NURSE

Nurse Anthea answers your questions. This week’s topic is bacteria.

Question - “I’m worried about my baby. She is crawling around on the floor and putting all sorts of things into her mouth.”

Nurse Anthea - Don’t worry. Children who live in spotlessly clean houses do not have much exposure to bacteria, so their immune systems don’t get the practice of fighting bacteria. Research shows that children living in houses that are not spotlessly clean, who have contact with animals and faecal matter, get fewer illnesses than children living in spotless homes.And there’s evidence that children who live with pets get fewer allergies.

Question - Is there a cure for MRSA (methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus)?

Nurse Anthea - There’s an antibiotic called Vancomycin. This is our last weapon against MRSA, but in time it will be useless too. One type of Staphylococcus aureus is now resistant to Vancomycin – so it is VRSA- Vancomycin resistant. There is a possibility of a bacterium which will be resistant to all antibiotics.

We have been winning the war against bacteria for about fifty years, but soon bacteria will make a comeback and we will be where we were in the nineteenth century – with no protection from bacteria.

Read the text.

Angelina Jolie on Refugees

In the last nine years, I have made many visits to the field with UNHCR (United Nations High Comissioner for Refugees). I do it to raise awareness for the plight of refugees, but I also do it for me. The refugees I have met and spent time with have profoundly changed my life. The eight-year-old girl who saved her brother taught me what it is to be brave. The pregnant woman in Pakistan taught me what it is to be a mother. And the paralyzed boy, who'd been shot in the back, with his big smile, showed me the strength of an unbreakable spirit. So today, on World Refugee Day, I thank them for letting me into their lives. And I thank you for coming. (Angelina Jolie)

Leia o texto abaixo.

New WHO-ITU standard aims to prevent hearing loss among 1.1 billion young people

Nearly 50% of people aged 12-35 years – or 1.1 billion young people – are at risk of hearing loss due to prolonged and excessive exposure to loud sounds, including music they listen to through personal audio devices. Ahead of World Hearing Day (3 March), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have issued a new international standard for the manufacture and use of these devices, which include smartphones and audio players, to make them safer for listening.

"Given that we have the technological know-how to prevent hearing loss, it should not be the case that so many young people continue to damage their hearing while listening to music,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. "They must understand that once they lose their hearing, it won’t come back. This new WHO-ITU standard will do much to better safeguard these young consumers as they go about doing something they enjoy.”

Over 5% of the world’s population – or 466 million people – has disabling hearing loss (432 million adults and 34 million children); impacting on their quality of life. The majority live in low- and middle-income countries. It is estimated that by 2050 over 900 million people – or 1 in every 10 people – will have disabling hearing loss. Hearing loss which is not addressed poses an annual global cost of US$ 750 billion. Overall, it is suggested that half of all cases of hearing loss can be prevented through public health measures.

Use the comic strip bellow to answer question:

FoxTrot

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

Ernesto Miranda, a Mexican immigrant living in Phoenix, Arizona, was identified in a police lineup by a woman, who accused him of kidnapping and raping her. Miranda was arrested and questioned by the police for two hours until he confessed to the crimes. During the interrogation, police did not tell Miranda about his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination or his Sixth Amendment right to an attorney. The case went to trial in an Arizona state court and the prosecutor used the confession as evidence against Miranda, who was convicted and sentenced to 20 to 30 years in prison. Miranda's attorney appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court, which upheld the conviction. Then he appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which agreed to hear it along with four similar cases. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of Miranda. This decision gave rise to what has become known as the Miranda Warning.

According to the text,

I. a fundamental right in US law has been named after a Mexican immigrant.
II. Ernesto Miranda was innocent of the crimes he was accused of in 1966.
III. the Supreme Court considered other cases when judging Miranda’s appeal.
IV. Miranda confessed to his crimes and served a 20 to 30-year sentence.
V. immigrants in the US are subject to the same laws as US citizens.

Leia a tirinha e o quadrinho para responder à questão.

The question refer to the comic strip below.

Text: Bonfire of the Fleas

Here's a guaranteed surefire method to completely eliminate a flea infestation on your dog or around its doghouse. First, late in the evening, chain your dog to its doghouse. Then, at a safe distance, build a small bonfire and let it bum ovemight near the dog's house. Fleas are insatiably attracted to heat and will soon become enamored of the fire, leave your dog and its environs, jump into the flames, and die. The next day you will find that all of the fleas are gone.

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Brazilian courts tussle over unproven cancer treatment

Patients demand access to compound despite lack of clinical testing. A court in the Brazilian state of São Paulo has cut off distribution of a compound that is hailed by some as a miracle cancer cure — even though it has never been formally tested in humans. On 11 November, to the relief of many cancer researchers, a state court overturned earlier court orders that had obliged the nation’s largest university to provide the compound to hundreds of people with terminal cancer.

The compound, phosphoethanolamine, has been shown to kill tumor cells only in lab dishes and in mice (A. K. Ferreira et al. Anticancer Res. 32, 95–104; 2012). Drugs that seem promising in lab and animal studies have a notoriously high failure rate in human trials. Despite this, some chemists at the University of São Paulo’s campus in São Carlos have manufactured the compound for years and distributed it to people with cancer. A few of those patients have claimed remarkable recoveries, perpetuating the compound’s reputation as a miracle cure. The Brazilian constitution guarantees universal access to health care, and it is common in Brazil for patients to turn to the courts to access drugs that the state healthcare system does not dispense because of their cost. But phosphoethanolamine presents a different situation because it is not really a ‘drug’ at all. It is not approved by Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency.

Those who argue that people who are terminally ill have a right to try experimental medicines saw a decision in favor of a patient in October 2015 as a significant victory. But to the university administration, drug regulators and cancer researchers, it showed blatant disregard for the basic scientific principle that a drug should be demonstrated to be safe and effective before being given to patients outside of a clinical trial.