Epidemics+WB

(1) Why keep the 1918 flu virus in the freezer? (2) Where do all fly viruses get their start? (3) How does the avian flu and 1918 flu kill people? (4) Why can't the bird flu transfer from human to human? (5) Why would someone in the lab want to give the bird flu the ability to go from human to human? (6) How are they are trying to give bird flu that ability (in the lab)? (7) How many people were killed in th 1918 flu epidemic? (8) How many people were killed by the plague-"The black death"? (9) What is an epidemic? (10) What caused the plague and how did it spread?

1. The 1918 flu virus needs to be kept in a freezer, in order to help prevent further breakouts. Also, if the disease were to break out again, we would have a controlled sample to study, which would aid in creating a new vaccine. 2. Fly viruses get their start in birds. 3. These viruses killed by attacking the lower part of the lungs. 4. The bird flu cannot transfer from human to human because it is not complex enough. 5. This would be necessary in order to make a vaccine to defend the body against this type of bird flu. 6. They are doing this by making it more complex, by adding the correct hemaglutinin combination. 7. About 50 million people died during the 1918 flu epidemic. 8. About 30% of Europe's entire population was killed during the Bubonic Plague. 9. An epidemic is a virus that infects a large population of people. 10. The Plague was caused by fleas that lived on rats, which traveled on ships across most of Europe.