1. Influenza: Describe the symptoms and tissues affected. List the categories of flu viruses. Explain how influenza viruses change and give rise to new strains. Distinguish between antigenic shift and antigenic drift. List the three big pandemics of recent times. Discuss serious complications arising from influenza. Contrast seasonal flu, bird flu, and swine flu. Explain how flu vaccines are prepared in advance of flu season. Tell how you would intelligently respond to someone who tells you, “I won’t have a flu shot because I had one last year and it gave me the flu.” What is the best way to avoid getting the flu?
2. Contrast influenza, parainfluenza, and colds. Tell what two groups of viruses account for most colds.
3. Describe studies exploring whether a being chilly can lead to a cold.
4. Tell why a vaccine against colds is not likely. How is it that we can have a flu vaccine but no cold vaccines are offered? What is the best way to avoid catching a cold?
5. Describe the relationship between HPV and warts. Explain why papilloma viruses are of concern. Describe the recent controversy regarding HPV vaccination.
6. Smallpox, the “only virus we ever beat” --or have we. What is smallpox, variolation, vaccination? What was the strategy used to defeat smallpox? What is the current concern? Great Pox, cowpox, chickenpox , monkeypox, smallpox --what do they have in common? How are they different? (You don’t have to know the details of these diseases.) We will view a video about smallpox.
6. Of the viral diseases we focused on in this chapter, which are pneumotropic, which are dermotropic and what do the two terms mean?
7. Don’t forget http://microbiology.jbpub.com/8e/index.cfm .