Ever heard of tuberculosis? Well the answer to that seemingly rhetorical question should be a flat “no” but unfortunately this disease is not extinct. The article TB ‘joins HIV as the most deadly infection’ by James Gallagher, discusses how the infamous tuberculosis, or TB, is making a comeback on the global population in countries like India, China, Nigeria. WHO, the world health organization, states that both tuberculosis and HIV “accounted for 1.1 to 1.2 million deaths in 2014 alone. The question rises: why should a disease that has been tackled in the 90s with success, impact the human mortality rate so heavily? Yes, doctors have cut down the cases of tuberculosis related deaths greatly in the 1990s but it still exists and currently is a main threat to us all. The article quotes WHO director general, Margaret Chan, who has the following response: “if the world is to end this epidemic, it needs to scale up services and, critically, invest in research.” However the problem with tackling this old foe is harder than expected as cases indicate that this tuberculosis is somewhat drug resistant. This resistance to antibiotics is a fearful factor to consider.
After all what happens after the body can’t defend itself from viruses even after all these vaccinations? We have the calm mentality that we’ll be fine, that we’re immune to certain viruses like tuberculosis because we’re vaccinated. However this article creates a dent in that belief. Yes, we knew that viruses can become drug resistant, but it is a completely different story after understanding that same virus is a prominent mortality factor in the world today. We have faith that once we hold the cure in our hands then everything is magically all better, but this article proves that we can’t be 100% safe from a virus until we tackle it properly.
This article is an interesting read; it is inciteful and presents its data and expert quotation eloquently. Another strength about this piece lies in its succinct nature to make the subject an easy matter to read. However I think discussing what exactly tuberculosis is would make the article stronger. Although it’s a fair assumption to think a majority of the audience knows what the tuberculosis is, it is better to introduce the term that is being talked about throughout the entire article. I would also have liked if the article could expand more as to why the virus, after being drastically cut down, has risen to the point that it and HIV are the most infectious viruses. It also would have been great to see the data in each individual country of how widespread tuberculosis is. Another minor improvement may have been just to label the pictures that the article included.
Citation:
Gallagher, James. "TB 'joins HIV as Most Deadly Infection' - BBC News." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2015. <http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34658015>.
Indira’s review of her article about tuberculosis was a comprehensive and interesting read. First off, it was easy to understand what she was writing because she used vocabulary that normal high school students, not only medical professionals, would use. She clearly explained concepts such as drug-resistant cases of TB and I was able to fully understand what she was saying. Another great aspect of her review was that she provided quotes from the article that reinforced her summary and made it sound more credible. The quote that she picked about the future of TB treatment from Margaret Chan, the WHO director general, made her summary sound more factual and informative. I also appreciated her assessment of the article in that she mentioned its lack of information about TB’s rise to becoming one of the most deadly viruses after being successfully countered in earlier years. Upon reading this, I completely agreed with her that such information would have been beneficial to the article and I think that her criticism was very insightful and thoughtful.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Indira did a great job overall, there are a few adjustments that may have improved her review. Despite her great summary and assessment of the review, it seemed that she did not address certain important aspects of it. She did not mention steps that we should take in the future, although she explained many times that “we can’t be 100% safe from a virus until we tackle it properly.” I think that providing information about possible steps that we could take to eliminate the virus either in her summary or making suggestions in her last paragraph would have helped the audience make sense of what to do with the information she presented. She also could have done a better job of explaining how TB was treated before, when it was successfully tackled in the 90’s. I understood that TB deaths were greatly reduced through statements such as, “Yes, doctors have cut down the cases of tuberculosis related deaths greatly in the 1990s”, but wasn’t sure how medical professionals achieved such success. If Indira could have expanded upon the development of the types of treatment they used and why they were failing now aside from drug resistance, it would have helped me understand how it came back to become such a deadly disease to so many people.
Indira’s review and the article that she chose contained a lot of information that I did not know before, Although I was familiar with the TB virus, I did not realize that it was becoming such a dangerous virus again. Indira presented information in a concise and understandable manner. I chose to read her review for this reason, and because I wanted to know more about TB and how it rose to become on par with HIV as one of the most deadly viruses. Since I was unaware that so many people were suffering from such a virus, learning about this topic changed my understanding of medical issues that face the world today. I think that a new vaccine or treatment should be made available immediately so that TB patients can be treated.
I chose to read Indira’s current event TB ‘joins HIV as the most deadly infection. When I read the title of the article I was so shocked, and I was curious to learn more. As I began reading I liked that she started with a question, “ever heard of tuberculosis?” Therefore, as a reader your brain can start to remember all you know about tuberculosis before, jumping right into the details. Also, I thought it was really interesting that she really addressed the fact that tuberculosis is somewhat drug resistant, and this resistance to antibiotics can be a scary factor to consider. Another aspect that strengthened the review was she added a picture which helped to fully visualize tuberculosis.
ReplyDeleteOverall, Indira’s review was very well written and interesting. Although, there are a few ways she could further improve the review. One improvement could be even though, I thought the questions strengthened her review, I felt that there were too many. There were a few places where she could have just included the information without posing a question first. Another improvement would be to add more about why she chose to read this article, and what she will do, or how this has affected her life specifically.
After reading this review I learned WHO, the world health organization, has said that both tuberculosis and HIV “accounted for 1.1 to 1.2 million deaths in 2014 alone. I knew that tuberculosis was deadly, but I had no idea that it has caused that many deaths. Therefore, reading and learning this fact was very shocking to me. Not only this one fact but other aspects of the article has opened my eyes to the seriousness of tuberculosis.
Indira’s review on the BBC article, “TB ‘joins HIV as most deadly infection,’” was intriguing to read. Her style of writing about a slightly complex issue keeps the reader fascinated; specifically, the opening sentence of the review immediately pulled me in. Also, her summary distinctly establishes the main idea of the article, and she uses direct quotes and evidence from the article to support the claim that tuberculosis is still a threatening disease to the human race.
ReplyDeleteIndira’s portion of the review related to the article’s relevance to society is very well written as well; it clearly addresses the fact that many of us can’t continue to trust the idea that vaccinations will defend us from all viruses.
This review was great, but there are a couple improvements that can be made. Although the article didn’t go into depth about what tuberculosis exactly is, I think that it would have been helpful if Indira had briefly explained the term using an outside resource. This would allow the reader of her review to have a better understanding of the true danger of tuberculosis resurfacing. Additionally, I think it would have been helpful to include another quote from the doctor mentioned at the end of the article. It is always effective to have multiple professional perspectives expressed in the current event reviews.
This article and Indira’s review reminded me that I can’t always rely on vaccinations to defend me from these deadly viruses. I had no idea that tuberculosis is still so present in our world, and that it’s as deadly a disease as HIV. I’m interested to see if there are any other diseases that are also overlooked as such a harmful virus.
Great Review! First of I all love how you included a photo. I always thinks it’s nice to add more than just writing. I also liked how you included data and quotations from your article. These facts help better explain concepts. Adding information like that really increases your credibility as a writer. I also enjoy how your summary was very concise and clear for such a complex article. I thought that your writing style was very easy to understand which made it easy to grasp what I was learning about.
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned above I really enjoyed how you incorporated a photo into your review. What would have made the article better is addressing the photo in your review and explaining it to the reader. The other improvement you could have made is to add some background information to your article. This would have let readers have a better understanding of tuberculosis as a whole.
I had known about tuberculosis before. However, I believed that there was no chance of getting it in this time period. I was surprised when I read this. Its shocking how many deaths there are from tuberculosis and we definitely need to inform more people that they can get this.
Indira, first off this was an awesome current event and an awesome choice in article topic! As a developed society, we are not forced to think about TB because it does not pose a constant issue for us. I think your summary of the article was extremely well written and easy to read. Your critique of the article was very thorough because it seemed like the article was missing some key facts that you (and I) would have liked it to include. Lastly, I think you did an awesome job at explaining the relevance to our society. When it comes down to it, we are not safe from diseases like TB, even though we have vaccines because pathogens mutate and we cannot stop that unless we can eradicate the disease.
ReplyDeleteIt was very difficult for me to find something to critique because this was so well written. Maybe you could have expanded the summary to include more, but I think the article was missing a lot, so it seems like there was not a ton you could do about that. Other than that, I have no other suggestions, this was an awesome current event.
This article has once again proven that while we have vaccines and medication to prevent a lot of diseases, we will never be safe unless we are researching to find a way to rid the world of these diseases. This topic is near and dear to my heart so this was an awesome read for me, thanks Indira!
Citation: Gallagher, James. "TB 'joins HIV as Most Deadly Infection' - BBC News." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2015. .
The main point of this article is that the fight against tuberculosis is not close to being over. Just last year 1.1 million people died from it and it kills as many people as HIV kills. The vaccine does not protect us 100% from the virus because it has been evolving to become immune to the vaccine. Indira did a good job of connecting this issue to other facets of life saying that we can never just stop thinking about a disease when a vaccine is created and that complications with it can come up again. I had not thought that TB was still a huge problem in the world, but I was proved wrong in this article.
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to have some background information on past TB epidemics and how this one compares because I am not so familiar with TB. Since this article did not provide much information she would have had to do other research, but I think it would have helped the reader better understand the article. I would have also liked to know if the people that are affected now are people that have previously received the TB vaccine or people that do not have access to it.
I read this article because I had thought that TB was a thing of the past. I was shocked to know that it still accounts for more than a million deaths each year. I think that since it is not very prevalent in North America or Europe that we overlook the effect of TB on the world. This article shows us that we have to be constantly updating our vaccines so future outbreaks won’t happen.