Difficulty: Intermediate
France
Being born premature is risky, but thanks to modern medical techniques, six out of ten babies who are born greatly premature will grow up to be perfectly healthy children.
Difficulty: Intermediate
France
After the devastating earthquake, three French volunteer aid workers—a doctor, a nurse, and a rescue crew worker—spent two weeks in Haiti helping the country’s effort to begin to sort through the chaos. We hear the impressions of one of the workers upon his return to France.
Difficulty: Intermediate
France
Mauritius has taken preventative measures to stop the Chikungunya virus from spreading, unlike nearby island Réunion. Tourists are more likely to feel safe thanks to strict controls at the airport and continued observation from health officials.
Difficulty: Intermediate
France
Just how bad can stress from work get? Though the effects of stress may not always be visible or immediately apparent, some employees have been driven to insomnia, depression, even suicide because of difficulties at work. Some companies have implemented new anti-stress measures, but will that be enough?
Difficulty: Intermediate
France
Pain, and how to better manage it, is becoming increasingly focused on by members of the medical community. Some hospitals have even appointed special doctors for pain management and a few are opening pain management centers.
Difficulty: Intermediate
France
There are warnings on cigarettes, warnings on bottles of wine, but do we really need warnings on rich foods? Who doesn’t know that they can make you gros et malsain?
Difficulty: Intermediate
France
A robot is sent into a deep ocean fault south of the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean. Its mission: to explore mineral chimneys and collect the organisms that can live there without sunlight.
Difficulty: Intermediate
France
Not only can sleep apnea keep you from getting a good night’s sleep, but it can also wreak havoc on your health, causing such serious health problems as brain damage and cardiovascular disease. Luckily, thanks to research by the National Scientific Research Center in Strasbourg and special equipment like oxygen masks, sufferers of sleep apnea may now be better able to get some rest.
Difficulty: Intermediate
France
The Yacyretá dam in Argentina is controversial for several reasons. Accused by some to be the result of a bribe to displace the local population, the dam has now gotten famed French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand into hot water. Arthus-Bertrand, who was filming a documentary there, is alleged to have walked out on a twenty-eight-thousand-euro bill he owed to a local travel agency.
Difficulty: Intermediate
France
Chantal Sébire, whose face was disfigured by a large and incurable tumor that caused her excruciating pain and made her blind, had one request: to end her own life. But the French government refused to allow her to obtain a prescription from her doctor for a lethal amount of drugs. One week after this report, Ms. Sébire was found dead in her home.
Difficulty: Beginner
France
Brr! It’s hard to believe that anything could survive in waters as cold as minus two degrees. But recent research expeditions in the Antarctic Ocean have found life forms, like the icefish, that manage to thrive despite the chilly temperatures.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
France
It’s common to see photos of celebrities aged forty and up happily pregnant or pushing a pram. But according to most doctors, a woman’s chances of conceiving drop dramatically after age thirty-eight or so. Of course there are exceptions. Modern medical fertility treatments allowed a sixty-six-year-old Romanian woman to give birth to twins in 2005. But unless we’re willing and able to procure such treatments, which can be financially, emotionally, and physically draining, those who want to wait until their forties to have kids will have to take their chances.
Difficulty: Intermediate
France
Tuberculosis remains a deadly disease—affecting 10.6 million people annually and killing one person every twenty seconds. The recent development of multidrug-resistant strains of the bacteria has made TB even more threatening. Especially affected are areas without the proper means of fighting the illness. Eight countries accounted for more than two thirds of the global total: India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to the WHO, 13 billion dollars would be required to effectively combat the disease.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
France
Step inside the world of the Orion Conspiracy, a fictionalized (or is it?) documentary produced and directed by Seb Janiak. Part One will leave you asking questions, and eagerly anticipating the next installment.
Difficulty: Beginner
France
Those of us who live in the United States are used to being able to buy some medications right off the shelves. But in France, until very recently, you weren’t able to purchase painkillers without first speaking to a pharmacist. Now certain painkillers are available on a self-serve basis, but are pharmacists ready for this change?
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