1. What is an epidemic?
An epidemic occurs when new cases of a certain disease occur in a given human population, during a given period, substantially exceed what is "expected," based on recent experience In recent usages, the disease is not required to be communicable; examples include cancer or heart disease.
2. What is a pandemic?
A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that spreads through populations across a large region; for instance a continent, or even worldwide.
3. What is an infectious disease?
is a clinically evident disease resulting from the presence of pathogeni microbial agents, including pathogenic viruses, pathogenic bacteria, fungi, protozoa, multicellular parasites, and aberrant proteins known as prions.
4. What is a virus?
A virus is a sub-microscopic infectious agent that is unable to grow or reproduce outside a cell. Viruses infect all types of cellular life. Viruses infect all forms of life, are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth, and are the most abundant type of biological entity on the planet.
5. What makes the H1N1 virus a "novel" or "new" virus?
it is a new disease that was recently discovered and has been spreading worldwide.
6. How do viruses mutate?
The only way they can reproduce is by infecting a cell, the host cells would evolve to where a virus would no longer be able to infect. Cells change their surface receptors so viruses cannot attach; the viruses change their surface proteins so they can attach to the changed cell surface receptors.
7. What does it mean that this virus has "parts" from other known swine flus, human flus and American bird flus?
the swine flu could combine with the bird flu, and is much more deadly, it is less easily transmitted, but still, if it gets to the humans it would be easily transmitted.
8. How does that process happen?
if the swine flu infectates someone that already has the flu, the diseases could combine, forming stonger and more dangerous virus.
9. How is the flu vaccine created?
the flu has spread all the way to the Norhtern Hemisphere, swine flu infectates someone that already has it the diseases could combine, forming stonger and more dangerous virus.
10. Why are some viruses transmittable from human to human while others are not (avian flu)?
Bird flus recquire few mutations to spread rapidly between mammals by respiratory droplets, so it only transmits with humans that have a direct contact with birds.it's easily transmittable from human to human.
11. How does Tamiflu work?
TAMIFLU works by helping to stop the flu virus from spreading inside the body is a prescription medication for flu treatment and prevention of the flu in adults and children aged 1 year and older.
12. Scientists worry that H1N1 might become resistant to Tamiflu. How might that happen?
not enough Tamiflus for everyone.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
1. What is the most predictable thing about influenza?
nature of the virus that causes
2. How many people have died in Mexico? (based on the article as well as on latest news)
More than 150 people.
3. Name 3 countries where swine flu has been confirmed in the last three days.
India, Turkey, Malaysia
4. What are the symptoms of the swine flu?
fever, cough, sore throat, and nausea and can range from mild to deadly.
5. When was the outbreak of the Spanish flu?
In 1918, after the World War l.
6. What percentage of the world population died of influenza then?
50 million people
7. Why was there an emergency vaccination program in 1976?
There was an outbreak of swine flu that lead to one death and an emergency prevention program that vaccinated approximately 40 million people, provoked a public backlash.
8. Name a few actions the Mexican government has done to curb the spread of swine flu.
they closed the public and private schools, they also closed restaurants, movies, places where people run, shop, walks. they were saying that they where going to closed also streets to stop some of the pandemic.
9. What were the consequences for Mexico and Mexicans due to the actions taken by the government?
the countries are avoiding traveling to Mexico, and the tourist economy has suffered consequences.
10. What industries were particularly hard hit?
all the restaurants, cinemas, tourist, malls etc.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Mexico has shut down schools and other public spaces; do you think that was the correct thing to do? Why or why not?
yes, because it helped people to be aware of this virus, also at closing schools and restaurants they helped to prevend that more poeple get the swin flu.
2. More people die from the regular flu then from swine flu, why do you think this became a big news story?
i think that problably it was becuase the drug (heroine) became legal, so they wanted to hide that information.
3. Why did people stop visiting Mexico? Why have Mexicans been discriminated? Do you think the fear of the disease is justified?
they were affraid to get the virus, they were descriminated i think because people thought that mexicans have swin flu and they dont want to get inffected, it wasnt fear because the people that was infected went to the hospitals to get treaty and the ones that werent inffected suffered all the descrimination.
4. What questions about individual and human rights does preventing the spread of flu raise?
we can't go out to public places and we are in a kind of prision all the human rights are violated. and everything is affecting in the economy making a chaos.
