Health
Senior 2 · English
Health
Lesson 3 of 4
25 min
Malaria is one of the most common reasons that people in Rwanda visit a health centre, especially in the warmer, lower parts of the country. It is also preventable and curable. Knowing how it spreads, and being able to explain that clearly in English, can protect your family.
In this lesson you will read about malaria, use if-sentences for real future possibilities to give health advice, learn where many medical words come from, and write a short health leaflet.
This text is adapted from the Simple English Wikipedia article Malaria. Ganzaa corrected and updated some details. For example, the article also names the Culex mosquito, but human malaria is carried only by Anopheles mosquitoes.
Malaria is an infectious disease caused by a tiny parasite called Plasmodium. It is one of the most common diseases in the world: every year it infects hundreds of millions of people and kills hundreds of thousands, most of them young children in Africa.
The parasite is spread by the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito. Only female mosquitoes bite people, because they need blood to make their eggs; male mosquitoes feed on the nectar of flowers. When an infected mosquito bites, the parasite enters the person's blood, travels to the liver, multiplies there, and then attacks the red blood cells.
Most people who get malaria feel ill between about ten days and four weeks after the bite. The most common symptom is a fever that comes suddenly. Other symptoms include headache, chills, pain in the joints, tiredness, sweating and vomiting. A person with malaria often feels as if they have a bad flu. Children and pregnant women usually become sicker than other people.
A health worker can confirm malaria with a rapid diagnostic test, which uses a drop of blood and gives a result in about twenty minutes, or by looking at the blood under a microscope. Malaria can be cured with the right medicine, but it can kill if treatment comes too late. The best protection is to avoid mosquito bites: sleep under an insecticide-treated net, remove standing water where mosquitoes breed, and see a health worker quickly when a fever starts.
Why do only female mosquitoes spread malaria?
Only females bite people, because they need blood to make their eggs. Males feed on nectar.
Look at the photo. Which method of protection from the reading is this event promoting?
Sleeping under an insecticide-treated mosquito net.
Why does the text say to see a health worker "quickly"?
Because malaria can be cured, but it can kill if treatment comes too late.
When a situation is really possible and we talk about its likely result, we use if + present simple and will, may, might, can or an imperative in the result clause.
| Purpose | Example |
|---|---|
| a likely result (will) | If you sleep under a treated net, mosquitoes won't bite you. |
| a possible result (may / might) | If you ignore the fever, the illness may become severe. |
| advice (imperative) | If your child has a fever, take her to the health centre today. |
| a negative condition (unless) | Unless you finish the tablets, the malaria may come back. |
| a condition that must be met (as long as) | You will recover quickly as long as you take the medicine correctly. |
Turn this advice into a real if-sentence: Empty the old pots around the house → mosquitoes will have fewer places to breed.
Condition (present simple): If you empty the old pots around the house, → result (will): mosquitoes will have fewer places to breed.
Compare with a general truth. For something that is always true, use the present simple in both clauses: If a mosquito bites an infected person, it picks up the parasite. This is sometimes called the zero conditional.
English has borrowed many health words from other languages, and their spelling often keeps traces of where they came from. Knowing the origin helps you spell and pronounce them.
| Word | Origin | Spelling or pronunciation tip |
|---|---|---|
| malaria | Italian mala aria, "bad air": people once believed bad air caused it | ma-LAIR-i-a; stress the second syllable |
| influenza (flu) | Italian, "influence" | the short form flu is used every day |
| vaccine | Latin vacca, "cow": the first vaccine used cowpox | VAK-seen; double c sounds /ks/ |
| pneumonia | Greek pneumon, "lung" | the p is silent: new-MOH-ni-a |
| diarrhoea | Greek, "flowing through" | British diarrhoea, American diarrhea; stress: di-a-REE-a |
| kwashiorkor | Ga, a language of Ghana | a disease of young children who do not get enough protein |
| chikungunya | Makonde, a language of Tanzania and Mozambique, "that which bends up" | named after the bent posture caused by painful joints |
Kinyarwanda has borrowed some of the same words back, for example malariya.
Write a short information leaflet (100–130 words) called Common diseases in Rwanda: Malaria. Use four headings: What is it?, How does it spread?, What are the symptoms?, How can we prevent it? Include at least three real if-sentences.
Model (last section)
How can we prevent it?
Sleep under an insecticide-treated net every night. If you empty old tins, tyres and pots around your home, mosquitoes will have fewer places to breed. If anyone in your family has a sudden fever, take them to a community health worker or health centre the same day. Unless malaria is treated quickly, it may become dangerous, especially for young children and pregnant women.
Tip
Real possibility = present + will (or may, can, or an order). If you sleep under a net, you won't get bitten.
Unless already contains not: write unless you finish, never unless you don't finish.
Complete: If you ___ (see) standing water near your house, ___ (pour) it away.
Solution: If you see standing water near your house, pour it away. Present simple in the condition, an imperative for advice.
Correct the mistake: If you will take the medicine, you will get better.
Solution: If you take the medicine, you will get better. No will in the if-clause.
Rewrite using unless: If malaria is not treated quickly, it can kill.
Solution: Unless malaria is treated quickly, it can kill.
Which letter is silent in pneumonia?
Solution: the p. We say new-MOH-ni-a.
Explain why the word malaria is, in fact, a mistaken idea.
Solution: It comes from Italian for "bad air", but malaria is not caused by air. It is caused by a parasite carried by Anopheles mosquitoes.
Remember
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
