19.

Health and diseases

It is very important to be healthly. Everybody needs a doctor. At present two types of health facilities are in this country: state and private ones. Medical care is provided to everybody from birth to death. We are looked after even before birth under the scheme called Mother and Child Care (=prenatal care). It means medical checkups before the child is born and maternity ward services. Then comes medical and social care during the pre-school and school age, up to old age. The term free medical care includes any type of medical treatment. Employers pay health insurence for their employees but everybody can pay extra money for his health insurance. Private people must buy their health insurance themselves. The state pays insurance for children, students, unemployed people and retired people. If we fall ill, we decide to see a physician who is called a General Practitioner (GP). It is better to make an appointment during his office hours if we do not want wait in the waiting room. Then the nurse invites us into the consulting room. The nurse has to look for our medical record and wants to see our insurance card. Then we can enter the surgery. The doctor asks what the trouble is and then asks us to strip to the waist. He must examine our chest and throat. The doctor wants to know if we have a temperature, a good appetite and where we feel pain. Then he listens to our lungs and heart and we have to take a deep breath or stop breathing according to his orders. He also wants us to open our mouth to see our tonsils. Sometimes he feels the pulse, takes the blood count and throat culture or puts urine throught lab tests. Finally the doctor diagnoses the case and prescribes a medicine. The medicine is for example pills, antibiotics, gargling, eye-wash, ointments, drops. We can find it at the pharmacy, at the chemist's. Also we can buy there some vitamins. Where we have a big problem, GP sents us to some specialist. They are dentists, surgeons, interns, oculists, pediatrians, gyneacologists, psychiatrists, dermatologists, ear and throat specialists or orthopaedic specialists. Dentists may check our teeth and sometimes pull out one of them or drill and fill them. They sometimes fit bridges on the teeth or make dentures. We can suffer from various illnesses beginning with common children diseases such as: measles, chickenpox, mumps, otitis, scarlet-fewer. Soon after birth each children is vaccinated against tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio or smallpox. Usually we suffer from common adults diseases such as cold, flu, angina, diarrhoea, constipation, hay-fewer, hangover. When we are cold, we have a headache, we usually sneeze and cough. We have a sore throat, temperature. When we have flu, so we have a temperature, symptoms for a cold and aching muscles. Hay-fewer means sneezing, runny nose and sore eyes. When we have diarrhoea, we must go to the toilet and we can feel sick, we can vomit. We should drink bitter tea. Also there are more serious diseases, e.g. heart attack, appendicitis, breaking an arm or leg, snake bite, severe bleeding, poisoning, anaemia, pneumonia, leukemia, diabetes or hepatitis. There are still diseases which cannot be cured such as cancer or AIDS.

It is true that prevention is better than a cure. We should try to live a healthy way of life. We should practise sports, we should eat healthy food with lots of vitamins. We should not smoke, drink much alcohol and so on. There are the parts of our body: head, forehead, cheek, lips, eybrows, eyes, ears, chin, neck, shoulders, bust (chest for men), hips, back, waist, elbow, arm, wrist, hand, thumb, fingers, bottom, thig, knee, ankle, foot, toes, heel There are some internal organs: lungs, heart, liver, kidneys, stomach, intestines, gall bladder The World Health Organization (WHO) is a special agency of the United Nations (UN) dealing with health and living conditions. The World Health Day came into existence the 7th of April 1948 and it has defined health as a state of physical and social prosperity and not only the absence of disease. Medical care in our republic is free of charge. Employers pay insurance for their employees but everybody can pay extra money for his health insurance. Private people must pay their health insurence themselves. The state pays insurance for children, students, retired people and unemployed people. In Britain there is free health care to all people in the country. Everybody can choose a GP. In an emergency, you can call an ambulance by dialling 999 from any telephone. In the United States you pay the doctor and then send the bill for the treatment to your insurance company. The problem is that private health insurance is expensive. So, many people do not pay private health insurance. If they fall ill, they must pay fot it themselves.