Questões de Inglês

18-Month-Old Bahati’s Struggle

to Survive Severe Malaria

Chris Bird, a former Reuters and Guardian reporter, put down his notepad and left more than 10 years of news reporting to study medicine with the intention of returning to the front lines where he can be hands-on saving lives and alleviating the kind of suffering he once wrote about.

As the sun went down and the ridges of the

Mitumba mountains turned a smoke blue, a line of

mothers sat quietly on a wooden bench in front of

the nurses’ station in the pediatric tent. The children

lying prostrate in their laps were new admissions, too

weak to protest against the nurses, who wore miner’s

headlamps to help search for a vein to place a drip.

These children have “severe malaria,” […] an

infection with one type of malaria parasite, Plasmodium

falciparum. After the parasite has invaded via the drilllike

proboscis of a blood-hungry female Anopheles

mosquito, the falciparum parasite replicates fast and,

like a microscopic wrecking ball, smashes red blood

cells and leaves children breathless with severe

anemia and sticks to blood vessels in the brain,

causing seizures, coma, and death.

Time is everything — delay treatment and the

parasites multiply unchecked and the child reaches a

point of no return. Lejuif — the nurse on duty — and

I started with the sickest looking child, 18-month-old

Bahati. His feet were cold, signalling he was in shock.

He didn’t respond when we rubbed him vigorously on

his chest — he was in a coma — and his chest heaved

up and down. He had severe respiratory distress. His

hemoglobin, the measure of how much oxygen his

red blood cells could carry, was very low. He needed

an immediate blood transfusion.

We rushed him under a crowd of stars between

the tent and the single story building containing our

intensive care unit (ICU). The unit has an oxygen

concentrator, which we used to help him breathe while

we placed a drip, gave anti-malarials, and arranged

for a transfusion.

Families have to donate blood if a child needs

a transfusion. Bahati’s mother had walked from the

gold mining town of Misisi, 15 kilometers down a dirt

road, and her partner had not accompanied her. As

she was pregnant, she could not donate. There was

no suitable blood in the hospital freezer. Wilondja,

another of the nurses, went back to the pediatric tent

and persuaded another of the parents to give blood.

We also started antibiotics as we had no means of

ruling out meningitis or another blood infection. […]

Political will and funding to buy bed nets,

insecticide spray, and medications that both cure

malaria and stop onward transmission of the disease

have saved many children’s lives in Sub-Saharan

Africa. There is now hope for a vaccine.

Experience in the Kimbi-Lulenge health district

would seem to bear out evidence from the World

Health Organization’s latest World Malaria Report

(2011) that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

is defying the trend and cases are actually rising.

MSF treated 15 percent more malaria cases in South

Kivu in the first two months of 2012, compared to

2011. […]

Bahati had a stormy course and remained in a

coma, with periodic seizures, for two days. His name

in Swahili means “luck,” and with the care of the

nursing staff in the makeshift ICU, he pulled through.

But thousands of children in the DRC will die from

malaria this year, a disease that is both preventable

and curable.

Available in: . Retrieved on: 27 April 2012. Adapted.

18-Month-Old Bahati’s Struggle

to Survive Severe Malaria

Chris Bird, a former Reuters and Guardian reporter, put down his notepad and left more than 10 years of news reporting to study medicine with the intention of returning to the front lines where he can be hands-on saving lives and alleviating the kind of suffering he once wrote about.

As the sun went down and the ridges of the

Mitumba mountains turned a smoke blue, a line of

mothers sat quietly on a wooden bench in front of

the nurses’ station in the pediatric tent. The children

lying prostrate in their laps were new admissions, too

weak to protest against the nurses, who wore miner’s

headlamps to help search for a vein to place a drip.

These children have “severe malaria,” […] an

infection with one type of malaria parasite, Plasmodium

falciparum. After the parasite has invaded via the drilllike

proboscis of a blood-hungry female Anopheles

mosquito, the falciparum parasite replicates fast and,

like a microscopic wrecking ball, smashes red blood

cells and leaves children breathless with severe

anemia and sticks to blood vessels in the brain,

causing seizures, coma, and death.

Time is everything — delay treatment and the

parasites multiply unchecked and the child reaches a

point of no return. Lejuif — the nurse on duty — and

I started with the sickest looking child, 18-month-old

Bahati. His feet were cold, signalling he was in shock.

He didn’t respond when we rubbed him vigorously on

his chest — he was in a coma — and his chest heaved

up and down. He had severe respiratory distress. His

hemoglobin, the measure of how much oxygen his

red blood cells could carry, was very low. He needed

an immediate blood transfusion.

We rushed him under a crowd of stars between

the tent and the single story building containing our

intensive care unit (ICU). The unit has an oxygen

concentrator, which we used to help him breathe while

we placed a drip, gave anti-malarials, and arranged

for a transfusion.

Families have to donate blood if a child needs

a transfusion. Bahati’s mother had walked from the

gold mining town of Misisi, 15 kilometers down a dirt

road, and her partner had not accompanied her. As

she was pregnant, she could not donate. There was

no suitable blood in the hospital freezer. Wilondja,

another of the nurses, went back to the pediatric tent

and persuaded another of the parents to give blood.

We also started antibiotics as we had no means of

ruling out meningitis or another blood infection. […]

Political will and funding to buy bed nets,

insecticide spray, and medications that both cure

malaria and stop onward transmission of the disease

have saved many children’s lives in Sub-Saharan

Africa. There is now hope for a vaccine.

Experience in the Kimbi-Lulenge health district

would seem to bear out evidence from the World

Health Organization’s latest World Malaria Report

(2011) that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

is defying the trend and cases are actually rising.

MSF treated 15 percent more malaria cases in South

Kivu in the first two months of 2012, compared to

2011. […]

Bahati had a stormy course and remained in a

coma, with periodic seizures, for two days. His name

in Swahili means “luck,” and with the care of the

nursing staff in the makeshift ICU, he pulled through.

But thousands of children in the DRC will die from

malaria this year, a disease that is both preventable

and curable.

Available in: . Retrieved on: 27 April 2012. Adapted.

18-Month-Old Bahati’s Struggle

to Survive Severe Malaria

Chris Bird, a former Reuters and Guardian reporter, put down his notepad and left more than 10 years of news reporting to study medicine with the intention of returning to the front lines where he can be hands-on saving lives and alleviating the kind of suffering he once wrote about.

As the sun went down and the ridges of the

Mitumba mountains turned a smoke blue, a line of

mothers sat quietly on a wooden bench in front of

the nurses’ station in the pediatric tent. The children

lying prostrate in their laps were new admissions, too

weak to protest against the nurses, who wore miner’s

headlamps to help search for a vein to place a drip.

These children have “severe malaria,” […] an

infection with one type of malaria parasite, Plasmodium

falciparum. After the parasite has invaded via the drilllike

proboscis of a blood-hungry female Anopheles

mosquito, the falciparum parasite replicates fast and,

like a microscopic wrecking ball, smashes red blood

cells and leaves children breathless with severe

anemia and sticks to blood vessels in the brain,

causing seizures, coma, and death.

Time is everything — delay treatment and the

parasites multiply unchecked and the child reaches a

point of no return. Lejuif — the nurse on duty — and

I started with the sickest looking child, 18-month-old

Bahati. His feet were cold, signalling he was in shock.

He didn’t respond when we rubbed him vigorously on

his chest — he was in a coma — and his chest heaved

up and down. He had severe respiratory distress. His

hemoglobin, the measure of how much oxygen his

red blood cells could carry, was very low. He needed

an immediate blood transfusion.

We rushed him under a crowd of stars between

the tent and the single story building containing our

intensive care unit (ICU). The unit has an oxygen

concentrator, which we used to help him breathe while

we placed a drip, gave anti-malarials, and arranged

for a transfusion.

Families have to donate blood if a child needs

a transfusion. Bahati’s mother had walked from the

gold mining town of Misisi, 15 kilometers down a dirt

road, and her partner had not accompanied her. As

she was pregnant, she could not donate. There was

no suitable blood in the hospital freezer. Wilondja,

another of the nurses, went back to the pediatric tent

and persuaded another of the parents to give blood.

We also started antibiotics as we had no means of

ruling out meningitis or another blood infection. […]

Political will and funding to buy bed nets,

insecticide spray, and medications that both cure

malaria and stop onward transmission of the disease

have saved many children’s lives in Sub-Saharan

Africa. There is now hope for a vaccine.

Experience in the Kimbi-Lulenge health district

would seem to bear out evidence from the World

Health Organization’s latest World Malaria Report

(2011) that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

is defying the trend and cases are actually rising.

MSF treated 15 percent more malaria cases in South

Kivu in the first two months of 2012, compared to

2011. […]

Bahati had a stormy course and remained in a

coma, with periodic seizures, for two days. His name

in Swahili means “luck,” and with the care of the

nursing staff in the makeshift ICU, he pulled through.

But thousands of children in the DRC will die from

malaria this year, a disease that is both preventable

and curable.

Available in: <http://doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article. cfm?id=5936&cat=fi eld-blogs>. Retrieved on: 27 April 2012. Adapted.

Amazon tribes

The Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest. It is also the ancestral home of one million Indians. They are divided into about 400 tribes, each with its own language, culture and territory. Many have had contact with outsiders for almost 500 years. Others – ‘uncontacted’ tribes – have had no contact at all.

• How do they live?

Most Indians live in settled villages by the rivers, and grow vegetables and fruits like manioc, corn, beans and bananas. They also hunt and fish, using plant-based poisons to stun the fish. Some tribes use shotguns for hunting, others use bows and arrows, spears, or blowguns with darts tipped with curare. Only a few Amazonian tribes are nomadic; they tend to live deep in the forest away from the rivers. They grow some crops but rely more on hunting and gathering.

• ___________ their problems?

Almost all the Indians’ problems revolve around land: outsiders either want their land, or something on or underneath it. The key threats are a massive boom in oil and gas exploration, rampant illegal logging and the rapid spread of ranching and farming.

(www.survivalinternational.org. Adaptado.)

Amazon tribes

The Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest. It is also the ancestral home of one million Indians. They are divided into about 400 tribes, each with its own language, culture and territory. Many have had contact with outsiders for almost 500 years. Others – ‘uncontacted’ tribes – have had no contact at all.

• How do they live?

Most Indians live in settled villages by the rivers, and grow vegetables and fruits like manioc, corn, beans and bananas. They also hunt and fish, using plant-based poisons to stun the fish. Some tribes use shotguns for hunting, others use bows and arrows, spears, or blowguns with darts tipped with curare. Only a few Amazonian tribes are nomadic; they tend to live deep in the forest away from the rivers. They grow some crops but rely more on hunting and gathering.

• ___________ their problems?

Almost all the Indians’ problems revolve around land: outsiders either want their land, or something on or underneath it. The key threats are a massive boom in oil and gas exploration, rampant illegal logging and the rapid spread of ranching and farming.

(www.survivalinternational.org. Adaptado.)