New UN AIDS Warning

Wednesday November 24, 2004

Intermediate +

BNE: The United Nations has warned that the world is facing a “unique development challenge” with an acceleration in the spread of AIDS. New data revealed there are nearly 40 million HIV sufferers worldwide, a 1.6 million increase from last year. Of these 3 million will die of AIDS this year, a record toll in the 23-year history of the killer virus. The UN warned that without urgent action “the world is unlikely to gain the upper hand over AIDS, … The time of quick fixes and emergency responses is over. We have to balance the emergency nature of the crisis with the need for sustainable solutions.”

The report says Sub-Saharan Africa remains by far the worst-affected region in the world. In South Africa 5.3 million people are infected, with “ no sign yet of a decline in the epidemic.” India has the second largest number of HIV sufferers in the world (5.1 million), while East Asia has seen a 56 percent increase in HIV cases, mainly attributable to an explosive rise in China. Women now constitute over half of all new cases contracting HIV/AIDS due to poor sexual education, the sex trade, unprotected sexual intercourse, and a greater natural susceptibility to contract the virus than men.

POSSIBLE WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about the AIDS crisis, the UN and WHO, world responsibility, solutions…

2. EDUCATION: Brainstorm what the students know about HIV and AIDS to gauge general class awareness.

3. MY COUNTRY: Students briefly tell what they know of the situations in their own countries (group students according to nationality in multi-lingual classes?).

4. WORLD AIDS DAY: is on December 1^st. Brainstorm what the students, school … can do to raise money to fight AIDS in the next week.

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. ‘EPIDEM~’ / ‘VIRU~’: Look in the dictionary to find words beginning with each of these prefix-like forms.

2. ABBREVIATIONS: Students try the following abbreviations and provide a definition for each one (they may need a dictionary):

A _ q _ _ _ _ d Im _ _ n _ D _ f _ _ _ _ _ _ y Sy _ d _ _ _ _

H _ m _ _n I _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ y V _ r _ s

W _ _ _ d H _ _ l _ _ O _ _ _ _ _ z _ _ _ _ n

U _ _ t _ _ N _ _ _ _ n _

S _ x _ _ l _ y T _ _ _ _ m _ t _ _ d D _ s _ _ s _

F _ m _ _ y P _ _ n _ _ _ g

N _ n G _ v _ _ _ _ _ _ t O _ _ _ _ _ z _ _ _ _ n

R _ p r _ d _ _ _ _ v _ H _ _ _ t h

3. TRUE/FALSE: Students predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false:
(a) The United Nations has issued an encouraging report on AIDS. T / F
(b) AIDS is now on the decrease. T / F
(c) AIDS is accelerating. T / F
(d) AIDS has now been a major world health problem for 23 years. T / F
(e) This year has seen record numbers of new HIV / AIDS sufferers. T / F
(f) North America is the world’s worst hit region. T / F
(g) China has experienced an explosion in AIDs cases. T / F
(h) It’s easier for a woman to contract AIDs than a man. T / F

4. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the first paragraph of the article:

(a)	face a	revealed …
(b)	new data	solution
(c)	HIV	hand
(d)	a record	challenge
(e)	killer	toll
(f)	gain the upper	sufferer
(g)	quick	fixes
(h)	sustainable	virus

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL: Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

New UN AIDS Warning - (Wed Nov 24)

BNE: The United Nations has warned that the world is facing a “________ development challenge” with an acceleration in the ________ of AIDS. New data revealed there are nearly 40 million HIV sufferers worldwide, a 1.6 million increase from last year. Of these 3 million will die of AIDS this year, a record ________ in the 23-year history of the killer virus. The UN warned that without urgent action “the world is ________ to gain the upper hand over AIDS, … The time of quick fixes and emergency responses is over. We have to ________ the emergency nature of the crisis with the need for sustainable solutions.”		balance spread unlikely unique toll
The report says Sub-Saharan Africa ________ by far the worst-affected region in the world. In South Africa 5.3 million people are infected, with “ no sign yet of a ________ in the epidemic.” India has the second largest number of HIV sufferers in the world (5.1 million), while East Asia has seen a 56 percent increase in HIV cases, ________ attributable to an explosive rise in China. Women now ________ over half of all new cases contracting HIV/AIDS due to poor sexual education, the sex trade, unprotected sexual intercourse, and a greater natural susceptibility to ________ the virus than men.		decline remains mainly contract constitute

2. TRUE/FALSE: Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the word match exercise.

4. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

5. VOCABULARY: Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the above gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS: Students ask the questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.

5. TO BE A PARTICIPANT: In pairs students brainstorm ideas on the issues that need resolving in battling the AIDs pandemic. They share their ideas and discuss whether and why (not) these will be resolved in the next 5, 10, 20 years.

6. REPORT THEMES: The report focused on the following themes. In pairs/groups, take one theme, discuss it and create a presentation and conclusion to be presented to other groups, who will ask you questions:
- In many societies the man has the ‘right’ to refuse to wear a condom, even if he is unfaithful and is HIV positive.
- In the Caribbean, Asia and Africa women exchange sexual services for goods.
- Safe sex education is still lacking in most of the world.
- A microbicide exists, but is not readily available, as a way of providing some protection against contracting HIV
- The sex trade is fuelling the new HIV explosion.
- Women are biologically more prone to catch HIV. Male to female contraction is half that of female to male contraction.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on AIDs. Share your findings with your class next les son.

3. REPORT THEMES: Choose one theme from the report and write a short article outlining your ideas to provide a sustainable solution (not a ‘quick fix’).

4. LETTER TO GEORGE W.: Write a letter to the President of the United States of America explaining your concerns for AIDs victims and explaining what you feel the leader of the free world should do.

ANSWERS

ABBREVIATIONS: Students try the following abbreviations and provide a definition for each one (they may need a dictionary):

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
Human Immunodeficiency Virus
World Health Organization
United Nations
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Family Planning
Non-Governmental Organization
Reproductive Health

TRUE/FALSE: Students predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false:
(a) The United Nations has issued an encouraging report on AIDS. F
(b) AIDS is now on the decrease. F
(c) AIDS is accelerating. T
(d) AIDS has now been a major world health problem for 23 years. T
(e) This year has seen record numbers of new HIV / AIDS sufferers. T
(f) North America is the world’s worst hit region. F
(g) China has experienced an explosion in AIDs cases. T
(h) It’s easier for a woman to contract AIDs than a man. T

PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the first paragraph of the article:

(a)	face a	challenge
(b)	new data	revealed …
(c)	HIV	sufferer
(d)	a record	toll
(e)	killer	virus
(f)	gain the upper	hand
(g)	quick	fixes
(h)	sustainable	solution

GAP FILL

BNE: The United Nations has warned that the world is facing a “unique development challenge” with an acceleration in the spread of AIDS. New data revealed there are nearly 40 million HIV sufferers worldwide, a 1.6 million increase from last year. Of these 3 million will die of AIDS this year, a record toll in the 23-year history of the killer virus. The UN warned that without urgent action “the world is unlikely to gain the upper hand over AIDS, … The time of quick fixes and emergency responses is over. We have to balance the emergency nature of the crisis with the need for sustainable solutions.”

The report says Sub-Saharan Africa remains by far the worst-affected region in the world. In South Africa 5.3 million people are infected, with “ no sign yet of a decline in the epidemic.” India has the second largest number of HIV sufferers in the world (5.1 million), while East Asia has seen a 56 percent increase in HIV cases, mainly attributable to an explosive rise in China. Women now constitute over half of all new cases contracting HIV/AIDS due to poor sexual education, the sex trade, unprotected sexual intercourse, and a greater natural susceptibility to contract the virus than men.

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