Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Patrick Woodward.
Speaker 2: And I'm Alice Irasari. Spotlight uses a special English method
Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
Speaker 1: Juan Euryta first went to the hospital in two thousand
Speaker 1: and three. His last visit was in twenty fifteen for
Speaker 1: the same disease. Eurata had an infection in his lungs.
Speaker 1: It made it difficult to breathe. He felt weak all
Speaker 1: the time. Sometimes blood filled his mouth, but the doctors
Speaker 1: could not cure him. For many years, Juan had a
Speaker 1: disease called tuberculosis.
Speaker 2: Today's spotlight is on tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is an ancient disease.
Speaker 2: Experts have found evidence of human infection as far back
Speaker 2: as ancient Egypt, but the bacteria that causes the disease
Speaker 2: is probably much older. Experts believe it appeared four to
Speaker 2: six thousand years ago in Africa. The disease then spread
Speaker 2: worldwide through trading. The disease also spread to animals. These
Speaker 2: animals then brought the disease to the Americas over a
Speaker 2: thousand years ago.
Speaker 1: Even in those days, tuberculosis was deadly. Tuberculosis starts as
Speaker 1: a disease of the lungs. It spreads through the air.
Speaker 1: The disease infects cells that normally defend the body. Attacked
Speaker 1: areas often expand in size, damaging the lungs. People with
Speaker 1: tuberculosis have difficulty breathing, they feel weak, and may find
Speaker 1: blood in their mouths. Tuberculosis can also spread to other
Speaker 1: parts of the body. Even when cured, tuberculosis causes permanent damage.
Speaker 1: About half the people who show signs of tuberculosis die
Speaker 1: if they are not treated.
Speaker 2: But tuberculosis is deadly for another reason. How it spreads.
Speaker 2: Tuberculosis does not spread quickly, but the disease infects many
Speaker 2: people in ways that do not show This is called
Speaker 2: having latent tuberculosis. A person with latent tuberculosis has the
Speaker 2: disease within their body. It does not hurt them, but
Speaker 2: tuberculosis is hard to get rid of. It can start
Speaker 2: making someone sick at any time. About ten percent of
Speaker 2: people with latent tuberculosis show signs. Later, the disease can
Speaker 2: come back over and over again.
Speaker 1: Tuberculosis has been a problem ever since it appeared, but
Speaker 1: the disease grew to its worst in Europe and North
Speaker 1: America during the eighteen hundreds. In Europe it was called
Speaker 1: the White plague. In North America, some called it the
Speaker 1: Captain of all these men of death. Experts believe that
Speaker 1: tuberculosis was responsible for twenty five percent of all deaths
Speaker 1: in the United States at that time. Franz Kafka was
Speaker 1: a German writer who died from tuberculosis. He wrote to
Speaker 1: his friend Max Brod about his sickness.
Speaker 3: Above all, I am tired. I lie for hours, barely
Speaker 3: a week. I am not doing well. The doctor does
Speaker 3: say that the trouble in the lung has.
Speaker 4: Improved, but I would say that it is far more
Speaker 4: than twice as bad. I have never had such a
Speaker 4: hard time breathing. I have never felt such weakness.
Speaker 2: Millions of other people experience sickness like Kafka's, but they
Speaker 2: would soon find hope. Robert Cook was a doctor from Prussia.
Speaker 2: This country contained what are today parts of Germany, Russia, Poland, Denmark, Belgium,
Speaker 2: and the Czech Republic. Cook was the first person to
Speaker 2: discover what caused tuberculosis, a disease causing bacteria, and in
Speaker 2: nineteen hundred and six other scientists developed a vaccine for
Speaker 2: the disease. This injection would prevent tuberculosis infection. Cook wrote
Speaker 2: soon after his discovery.
Speaker 5: In the future, the fight against this terrible disease of
Speaker 5: mankind will deal no longer with an unknown thing. It
Speaker 5: will deal with a real creature. Its living conditions are,
Speaker 5: for the most part known. They be investigated more.
Speaker 1: Other developments followed. Albert Schatz, Elizabeth Boogie, and Selman Waxman
Speaker 1: were American scientists. They discovered a substance called streptomycin in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty four. Streptomycin killed tuberculosis without hurting patients. Other
Speaker 1: drugs like it, called antibiotics, came quickly after. Together with vaccination,
Speaker 1: these drugs fought back against tuberculosis. These treatments reduced the
Speaker 1: number of people the disease killed by fifty one percent.
Speaker 1: It seemed as if the world had the tools to
Speaker 1: remove tuberculosis altogether.
Speaker 2: Sadly, these medicines were not enough. By the nineteen eighties,
Speaker 2: the tuberculosis bacteria started changing. It grew resistant to many drugs.
Speaker 2: Doctors needed new drugs to treat the disease, but scientists
Speaker 2: did not develop them. Tuberculosis seemed like it was almost gone,
Speaker 2: so money went to fight other diseases.
Speaker 1: Tuberculosis started spreading in Africa and Asia in countries that
Speaker 1: could not research the disease as quickly. Wealthier countries could
Speaker 1: have helped, but for these countries, the disease no longer
Speaker 1: seemed like a danger. Their streets were clean, their children
Speaker 1: were safe. Aid went to other things. As a result,
Speaker 1: other countries suffered. Tuberculosis grew strong in places that were
Speaker 1: closely populated and where the people were poorest.
Speaker 2: Another disease helped this spread. It is called HIV. HIV
Speaker 2: is a disease that attacks the body's defensive cells. It
Speaker 2: makes it more difficult to fight other diseases. Tuberculosis takes
Speaker 2: advantage of these weakened defenses. Today, a third of all
Speaker 2: people infected with HIV also have tuberculosis. The disease causes
Speaker 2: forty percent of deaths related to HIV. In most years,
Speaker 2: tuberculosis kills more people than any other disease. The only
Speaker 2: bigger killer was COVID nineteen in twenty twenty one and
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: The risk of tuberculosis is still very high, but today
Speaker 1: there is some hope. Research into new drugs for tuberculosis
Speaker 1: is ongoing. New drugs are not easy to find, but
Speaker 1: with more money, these new drugs could reduce the danger
Speaker 1: of tuberculosis.
Speaker 2: There is also more testing being done in countries with
Speaker 2: a higher risk of the disease. Testing and treating those
Speaker 2: with the disease has worked before to prevent its spread.
Speaker 2: The world simply needs to renew its concern to defeat
Speaker 2: the disease, and it appears it may be doing so.
Speaker 2: Doctor Tedros gaber Jesus is the director of the World
Speaker 2: Health Organization.
Speaker 6: He said, today we have the knowledge and tools, we
Speaker 6: have the political will we can end this thousand year
Speaker 6: old disease that remains one of the world's top killers.
Speaker 1: The world has previously eliminated diseases like smallpox, can it
Speaker 1: do the same with tuberculosis. You can leave a comment
Speaker 1: on our website at www dot Spotlight English dot com.
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Speaker 2: The writer and producer of this program was Dan Christman.
Speaker 2: The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and
Speaker 2: the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program
Speaker 2: and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this program
Speaker 2: again and read it on the internet at www dot
Speaker 2: Radio English dot net.
Speaker 1: This program is called Curing Tuberculosis. We hope you can
Speaker 1: join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye,