More Questions About Disease
Name: ___________________________(Pick any 6 questions)
Malaria
1. Describe malaria, both the disease itself and also how we get it. Why is malaria so hard to wipe out?
2. What was the Roman Empire's role in spreading malaria? (p.165)
3. What is the likely effect of global warming on malaria?
4. Why did DDT fail to eliminate malaria? (p.169)
AIDS
5. Medically, why has the HIV (AIDS) virus been so darn hard to cure? (See pp. 193-196 in the book.)
6. How do we currently treat AIDS now?
Influenza
7. How/why can influenza (the flu) change so rapidly? (p.142)
8. What role do pigs and ducks play in influenza? (p.144)
Others
9. Why did the CDC recently (2000) change from recommending Sabin's oral polio vaccine (OPV) to Salk's killed-virus injections? (p.155)
10. Describe "the Plague." Where does it come from? What does it do to us?
11. Why can't we just give everybody in the United States toxoids that render us immune to botulism toxin? (See p. 232.)
Bioterror
12. The book mentions three known attempted cases in which bioweapons were used: the Aum Shinrikyo case in Tokyo, the Rajneesh case in Oregon, and the anthrax mailing case. 1. Describe each of these cases. 2. Based on these cases, do you think that germ warfare is an effective "weapon of mass destruction"? Why or why not? 3. Are there other considerations?
General
13. How can we catch hepatitis A, B, and C? What are the symptoms? How do we try to prevent or cure them? Are there other varieties of hepatitis virus other than A, B, and C?14. What is the difference between a coccus and a bacillus? What is the difference between a gram-postitive and gram-negative bacterium, and why is the difference important?