full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Melvin Sanicas: What makes TB the world's most infectious killer?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


These sotymmps produce the classic image of TB: wgheit loss, a hacking, bloody cough, and aeshn skin. This ghostly aappcnaere earned TB the title of the ‘White Plague’ in Victorian-era England. During this period, troubsceiuls was considered a ‘romantic dsiasee,' because it tended to affect poverty- stricken asirtts and poets– those with weaker immune systems. TB’s outward symptoms even hpleed fuel the popular myth of vampirism.

In spite of– or perhaps because of these less than scientific cenonrcs, this period also marked the first strides toward curing TB. In 1882, the German physician Robert Koch identified the disease’s bacterial origins. 13 years later, physicist Wilhelm Roentgen discovered the X-ray, enabling physicians to diagnose and track its progression through the body. These techniques awlloed researchers to develop reliable and effective vaccines– first for smallpox, and again in 1921, when sesicnttis developed the BCG vaccine to battle TB. These dleomenetvps laid the groundwork for the modern field of antibiotics– currently home to our most effective TB treatments. But, acibtniotis fail to address a mjoar diagnostic complication: about 90% of plopee infected with TB don’t show any symptoms. In these latent infections, the TB bacterium may be dormant, only activating when someone’s immune system is too weak to mount a defense. This makes TB much harder to diagnose. And even when properly identified, traditional trttnmaees can take up to 9 mhtons, requiring multiple drugs and a high potential for side effects. This drgioueacss people from fihniisng the full course, and partial treatment enables braecita to develop resistance to these drugs.

Open Cloze


These ________ produce the classic image of TB: ______ loss, a hacking, bloody cough, and _____ skin. This ghostly __________ earned TB the title of the ‘White Plague’ in Victorian-era England. During this period, ____________ was considered a ‘romantic _______,' because it tended to affect poverty- stricken _______ and poets– those with weaker immune systems. TB’s outward symptoms even ______ fuel the popular myth of vampirism.

In spite of– or perhaps because of these less than scientific ________, this period also marked the first strides toward curing TB. In 1882, the German physician Robert Koch identified the disease’s bacterial origins. 13 years later, physicist Wilhelm Roentgen discovered the X-ray, enabling physicians to diagnose and track its progression through the body. These techniques _______ researchers to develop reliable and effective vaccines– first for smallpox, and again in 1921, when __________ developed the BCG vaccine to battle TB. These ____________ laid the groundwork for the modern field of antibiotics– currently home to our most effective TB treatments. But, ___________ fail to address a _____ diagnostic complication: about 90% of ______ infected with TB don’t show any symptoms. In these latent infections, the TB bacterium may be dormant, only activating when someone’s immune system is too weak to mount a defense. This makes TB much harder to diagnose. And even when properly identified, traditional __________ can take up to 9 ______, requiring multiple drugs and a high potential for side effects. This ___________ people from _________ the full course, and partial treatment enables ________ to develop resistance to these drugs.

Solution


  1. antibiotics
  2. people
  3. ashen
  4. weight
  5. artists
  6. scientists
  7. concerns
  8. developments
  9. treatments
  10. disease
  11. helped
  12. months
  13. tuberculosis
  14. major
  15. appearance
  16. allowed
  17. symptoms
  18. bacteria
  19. discourages
  20. finishing

Original Text


These symptoms produce the classic image of TB: weight loss, a hacking, bloody cough, and ashen skin. This ghostly appearance earned TB the title of the ‘White Plague’ in Victorian-era England. During this period, tuberculosis was considered a ‘romantic disease,' because it tended to affect poverty- stricken artists and poets– those with weaker immune systems. TB’s outward symptoms even helped fuel the popular myth of vampirism.

In spite of– or perhaps because of these less than scientific concerns, this period also marked the first strides toward curing TB. In 1882, the German physician Robert Koch identified the disease’s bacterial origins. 13 years later, physicist Wilhelm Roentgen discovered the X-ray, enabling physicians to diagnose and track its progression through the body. These techniques allowed researchers to develop reliable and effective vaccines– first for smallpox, and again in 1921, when scientists developed the BCG vaccine to battle TB. These developments laid the groundwork for the modern field of antibiotics– currently home to our most effective TB treatments. But, antibiotics fail to address a major diagnostic complication: about 90% of people infected with TB don’t show any symptoms. In these latent infections, the TB bacterium may be dormant, only activating when someone’s immune system is too weak to mount a defense. This makes TB much harder to diagnose. And even when properly identified, traditional treatments can take up to 9 months, requiring multiple drugs and a high potential for side effects. This discourages people from finishing the full course, and partial treatment enables bacteria to develop resistance to these drugs.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. activating
  2. address
  3. affect
  4. allowed
  5. antibiotics
  6. appearance
  7. artists
  8. ashen
  9. bacteria
  10. bacterial
  11. bacterium
  12. battle
  13. bcg
  14. bloody
  15. body
  16. classic
  17. concerns
  18. considered
  19. cough
  20. curing
  21. defense
  22. develop
  23. developed
  24. developments
  25. diagnose
  26. diagnostic
  27. discourages
  28. discovered
  29. disease
  30. dormant
  31. drugs
  32. earned
  33. effective
  34. effects
  35. enables
  36. enabling
  37. england
  38. fail
  39. field
  40. finishing
  41. fuel
  42. full
  43. german
  44. ghostly
  45. groundwork
  46. hacking
  47. harder
  48. helped
  49. high
  50. home
  51. identified
  52. image
  53. immune
  54. infected
  55. infections
  56. koch
  57. laid
  58. latent
  59. loss
  60. major
  61. marked
  62. modern
  63. months
  64. mount
  65. multiple
  66. myth
  67. origins
  68. outward
  69. partial
  70. people
  71. period
  72. physician
  73. physicians
  74. physicist
  75. popular
  76. potential
  77. produce
  78. progression
  79. properly
  80. reliable
  81. requiring
  82. researchers
  83. resistance
  84. robert
  85. roentgen
  86. scientific
  87. scientists
  88. show
  89. side
  90. skin
  91. smallpox
  92. spite
  93. stricken
  94. strides
  95. symptoms
  96. system
  97. systems
  98. tb
  99. techniques
  100. tended
  101. title
  102. track
  103. traditional
  104. treatment
  105. treatments
  106. tuberculosis
  107. vaccine
  108. vampirism
  109. weak
  110. weaker
  111. weight
  112. wilhelm
  113. years