Name: _________________________________

Period: _____
How Pandemics Spread

1. What is the difference between a pandemic and an epidemic?

a. They can be used interchangeably
b. A pandemic is an epidemic that spreads to multiple countries or worldwide
c. A pandemic is an epidemic that causes more than a thousand deaths
d. A pandemic affects multiple animal species, not just humans
2. Why are epidemics and pandemics a relatively recent phenomenon in human
history?

3. Scientists have extracted from human remains which of the following infectious
agents?
a. Tuberculosis bacteria from ancient Egyptian mummies
b. The bacterium responsible for the Black Death in 14th century Europe
c. The strain of smallpox virus that devastated the Aztecs in the 16th century
d. DNA from the earliest known case of Ebola virus in Sudan, 1970
e. A and B
4. How many Europeans succumbed to the Black Death?
a. More than 30 million
b. 2.5 million
c. Unknown – we’re still discovering the plague burial pits
5. What happens to the influenza virus every 20-40 years, and why? What are the
recent example(s)?

6. What is antigenic shift?

a. The molecular mechanism that allows antigens to “hide” from the human
host’s immune system
b. The phenomenon of viruses and bacteria mutating so that vaccines and
antibiotics are obsolete
c. When two or more known strains of a virus combine to form a new strain
7. How do war zones and natural disaster sites become breeding grounds for
infectious diseases?

8. Where did the 2003 SARS outbreak originate?

a. Malaysia
b. Euro Disney
c. Hong Kong
d. Hanoi

*Questions taken from the “Think” section of the TEDed Video: “How Pandemics Spread” by Mark
Honigsbaum (http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-pandemics-spread#digdeeper)
 Influenza WebQuest

Go to www.flu.gov to answer the following questions.

Seasonal Flu

1. Seasonal flu is a ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ caused by viruses.

2. Getting a ____________________ is your best protection against the flu.

3. What groups are likely to experience complications from the seasonal flu?

How the Flu Virus Changes

4. Flu viruses constantly ____________________ and ____________________.

5. Antigenic drift refers to changes to the flu virus that happen ____________________. This can

cause changes to the flu that require us to be vaccinated every ____________________.

6. Antigenic shift is an ____________________, major change in the influenza A viruses. Shift

results in a ____________________ influenza A subtype that has emerged from an

____________________ population that is so different from the same subtype in ____________________

that most people do not have ____________________ to the new.

7. Which type of change can result in a severe flu epidemic or pandemic?

About Pandemics

8. A pandemic is a ____________________ disease outbreak. Influenza pandemics are

____________________; only _______________ influenza pandemics occurred during the 20th century.

9. There are many differences between a pandemic flu and the seasonal flu. Fill in the table

to show at least 5 differences.

Seasonal Flu Pandemic Flu

*Taken and adapted from the CDC’s Science Ambassador Workshop 2014 Lesson Plan “Keep Calm and Get
Vaccinated” (https://www.cdc.gov/careerpaths/scienceambassador/documents/ms-keep-calm-get-
vaccinated-2014.pdf)
 Vaccination and Vaccine Safety

10. The flu vaccination is available by ____________________ or ____________________

____________________.

11. Getting a flu vaccination is especially important if you or someone you live with are at

____________________ ____________________ of complications from the flu.

12. If you get the flu vaccination, you are (less, more) likely to need treatment for the flu by

a healthcare provider.

2009 A/H1N1 (Swine flu)

13. The 2009 H1N1 flu virus caused a worldwide ____________________ during 2009. It is now a

____________________ human flu virus.

14. Although the H1N1 viruses have continued to circulate since the pandemic, 2013-2014

was the first ____________________ since 2009 that H1N1 was so predominant in the US.

15. Getting the ____________________ is your best protection against 2009 H1N1 flu.

*Taken and adapted from the CDC’s Science Ambassador Workshop 2014 Lesson Plan “Keep Calm and Get
Vaccinated” (https://www.cdc.gov/careerpaths/scienceambassador/documents/ms-keep-calm-get-
vaccinated-2014.pdf)