Text c . “The origin of infections”
The infectious diseases of man are usually divided into two large groups. Some diseases affect only men, others affect both man and animals, with man most frequently infected from animals.
Every infectious disease has not only characteristic clinical manifestations but also its own specific way of invasion into the human body.
Such a disease as dysentery, which is one of the diseases of the intestinal infections, is spread through the intestines and stools.
The infections of the respiratory tract compose the second subgroup. During coughing or talking the pathogens are discharged from the infected organism with the mucus from the membranes of the respiratory tract into the air in the form of drops. The infection is spread when the air containing drops of mucus with the pathogens in it, is breathed in. The diseases of this subgroup are diphtheria, smallpox, etc.
The diseases of the third subgroup are spread through the skin and the mucosa in which the pathogens multiply. In some cases it is the skin, in others it is the mucous membrane of the eye. Direct contact and various things belonging to the sick may be responsible for spreading the infective agent.
The diseases of the fourth subgroup are spread by living insects. The pathogens causing these infections circulate in the blood or lymph and are not discharged from the organism. The insects become infected as they ingest the blood of a diseased man. They become infectious for other people after the pathogens have multiplied in their organism. All these diseases, of which encephalitis is an example, are called blood infections.
Exercise 8. Find in the text English equivalents for the following words and word combinations:
Особый путь проникновения, во время кашля или разговора, в виде капель, различные предметы.
Exercise 9. Find in the text and write out the answers to the following questions:
What groups are the infectious diseases divided into?
What are the diseases of these subgroups?
Exercise 10. Retell the text.
Additional tasks
Infectious diseases: word building
The words on the right can be used to form a noun that fits suitably in the blank space. Fill each blank in this way.
1 The sterilization of equipment is necessary to kill spores. STERILE
2. Safe practice includes the safe________________ of waste. DISPOSE
3 Hands must be carefully washed after_____________ CONTAMINATE
with body fluids.
4. A patient with a highly infectious disease may have ISOLATE to be cared for in ______________________
5. Some disease organisms may trigger an inflammatory RESPOND
__________________________in the body.
6. The of influenza depends on the strain SEVERE
of virus causing it.
7. In the case of mumps the period of__________________ INCUBATE
is very long.
8. In most European countries, ________________ against VACCINATE
many childhood diseases is available.
9. A long__________ is often required after CONVALESCE
glandular fever.
10. Many viral diseases are known to cause___________ INFLAME
of the tonsils.
11. A programme of ___________ has made diphtheria IMMUNE
a very rare disease in Britain.
12. Tetanus is an______by the Clostridium tetani bacillus. INFECT
13. Typhoid fever is spread by_________of food or INGEST
drink contaminated by bacillus from infected faeces.
14. If plaque is not removed from teeth it may lead to the DESTROY
_______________of the enamel.
Most of the nouns above end in -tion. Other suffixes which form nouns above are -al, -ity, -ence, although -al is normally used to form adjectives (industrial, economical). Try to think of some other nouns formed with these suffixes.