Introduction

Hi,

In this radio programme your are going to hear some new words. Read and listen to them. Make sure you know what they mean.

AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome): sida
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus): pvirus de la immunodeficiència humana adquirida, causant de la sida
UN (United Nations): Nacions Unides
shift: desplaçament
sleepwalk: somnambulisme
stunting: raquitisme, manca de creixement

Ready?
Now read the questions slowly before listening to the radio programme.

In medicine, 20 years is a long time to be at war. It is now 2 decades since scientists identified the cause of AIDS: HIV —«a strange new syndrome devastating immune systems and destroying lives». Within this period, many things have happened. For some, the prognosis is good, for others the future will bring only disaster. To discuss the present and the future of AIDS we have a panel of 3 public-health experts: Dr. Nora Smith, Jean Roberts, journalist, and Ray Rob, a UN inspector.

PRESENTER: What’s the current situation, Ray? Do you have any statistics?

RAY: In its 2003 report UNAIDS, the United Nations agency estimated that 40m people are infected with HIV and that 2,5m of them are children. In 2003 alone, 5m were newly infected.

[Now listen to the rest of the interview]

(....)          (....)

QUESTIONS

Choose the correct answer. Only one answer is correct. Look at number 0 as an example.

0. Scientists identified the HIV virus...
twenty years ago.
q during the last decade.
q at some unknown point in the last thirty years.

1. Between 1999 and 2003 the number of people who died from AIDS...
q didn’t vary.
q went up.
q went down.

2. The balance of AIDS-infected population has shifted from...
q white, rich and homosexual to poor, black heterosexual feminine.
q gay to heterosexual, independently of race and wealth.
q a general population of intravenous-drug users to African drug-addict women.

3. As for the present situation, there is...
q no hope: we don’t see the end of the tunnel yet.
q some hope: we are at a critical moment when things may start changing.
q almost no hope: leaders are still silent and apathetic as they were in the 1990s.

4. Drug-experimentation periods are becoming shorter because...
q generics are replacing expensive drugs almost everywhere.
q there are many more voluntaries than before.
q there is less money available for laboratory assessment.

5. South Africa...
q is a very good example of good health policy.
q has managed to contain AIDS better than any other country in the world.
q is the country with the largest population of HIV-infected people.

6. Experts predict that...
q in some African places 50% of the people may be killed by the virus.
q the worst is over and the main thing to fear now is economic disaster.
q epidemics are already under control.

7. What’s the number of orphan children as a result of AIDS?
q One in ten.
q One out of three.
q Eleven million.

8. AIDS-orphans...
q are encouraged to attend school but they reject it.
q quite often find in prostitution their only source of food and money.
q often become good parents because of their hard and cruel sufferings.