Anglais médical- la résistance aux antibiotiques

Ce nouveau cours d’anglais, élaboré par Virginia Allum, auteur et consultante EMP (English for Medical Purposes) traite de l’antibiorésistance. Les corrigés des exercices sont à retrouver en PDF en bas de page.

N'hésitez pas à vous servir du dictionnaire en ligne Wordreference. Vous trouverez à la fin de cet article les corrections des exercices qui vous sont proposés téléchargeables au format pdf.

Activity 1

Match the English term with the correct French translation.

Activity 2

Match the terms with their definitions. Select terms from the table in activity 1.

1. _______________ : type of staphylococcus bacterium that is resistant to methicillin antibiotics
2. _______________ : a subset of any bacterial group
3. _______________ : something that is done to prevent the spread of disease
4. _______________ : a micro-organism which is resistant to most antibiotics
5. _______________ : substance which indicates there is inflammation in the body
6. _______________ : group of bacteria which have thin walls and do not stain purple
7. _______________ : providing patients with antibiotics when they are not necessary
8. _______________ : something that destroys pathogens such as viruses, bacteria and fungi
9. _______________ : antibiotic that can treat a variety of bacterial infections
10. _______________ : drug that kills or inhibits the growth of bacteria

Activity 3

Read the article and answer the questions.

What is Gram Staining?

Gram staining was devised by a Danish physician, Hans Christian Gram, in 1884. After adding crystal-violet dye to a glass slide with bacterial cells on it, he saw that the cells turned purple. He then flushed the slide with iodine and noticed that gram-positive bacteria stayed purple. This is because gram-positive bacteria have a thick cell wall. Bacteria which are gram positive include staphylococcus (staph.), streptococcus (strep.), listeria and clostridium. In contrast, gram negative bacteria were ‘decolourised’ and looked red or pink. This is because they have thin walls. Bacteria which are gram negative include salmonella, Escherichia (e.g. E.coli) and pseudomonas.

1. When microbiologists flush a glass slide, they…
   a)    clean the slide in water
   b)    pour a liquid over a slide
   c)    wipe a slide with a cloth
2. Iodine is a…
   a)    brownish liquid chemical
   b)    chemical which changes colour
   c)    cleansing liquid
3. Cells which are decolourised…
   a)    lose colour quickly when stained
   b)    are the same colour as the stain
   c)    do not take up gram staining

Activity 4

Read the text and complete the activity. Choose words from the box below to complete the sentences.

What is antibiotic resistance?

Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change in response to the misuse or overuse of certain antibiotics. This has resulted in a growing number of infections becoming harder to treat, because the antibiotics used to treat them have become less effective.

Misuse and overuse of antibiotics, as well as poor infection prevention and control have caused superbugs to develop. Superbugs are strains of bacteria that have developed a resistance to many antibiotics. Antibiotic resistant infections include those caused by MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus), C.diff (Clostridium difficile), MDR-TB (multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis and E. coli (Escherichia coli).

Antibiotic resistance leads to higher medical costs and longer hospital stays. Although a few new antibiotics are in the development phase, none are expected to be effective against the most dangerous forms of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This means that infections have to be treated with more expensive drugs with no guarantee of success.

There has been a world-wide call for an urgent change in the way antibiotics are prescribed and used. Even if new antibiotics are developed, antibiotic resistance will remain a major threat without behaviour changes aimed at preventing infection in the first place. These include proper hand washing, the practice of safe sex and the implementation of good food hygiene.

Patients should only use antibiotics which have been prescribed by a healthcare professional and should not demand antibiotics, if they are told antibiotics are not appropriate. Antibiotic instructions must be followed carefully and the whole course of treatment must be taken. Antibiotics must not be shared with others, even if their symptoms appear to be the same.

• Words :
• prescribe
• developed
• prevention
• antibiotic resistance
• misuse

1. Many infections cannot be treated easily now, because of ___________________.
2. The _________________ of antibiotics includes sharing antibiotics with other people and not finishing your own course of antibiotics.
3. An example of overuse of antibiotics is when healthcare professionals _____________________ antibiotics for infections which do not need them.
4. Antibiotics which are currently being _________________ may not be able to treat all types of infections.
5. Behaviour changes which result in infection _______________________ rather than treatment have become increasingly important, as more bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics.

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Virginia ALLUM  Author and Consultant in English for Medical Purposes