Science of Swine Flu for 5 Year Olds
This year, everyone has been making a big fuss about swine flu. It has been in every newspaper and on every TV news channel. It all started in Mexico where a disease that was affecting pigs started to affect the people that looked after the pigs too. However, it is very rare for people to catch the disease from pigs and you can eat pork without catching swine flu. Some people in Mexico began to die from it, but most people got better after feeling very ill for a few days.
Image credit: Flickr
The disease has now spread around the world, with someone in almost every country being affected. This is why it is now called a “pandemic”. A pandemic is what we call it when a serious disease spreads around the world.
The scientific name for swine flu is H1N1, and it is caused by a virus. Viruses are biological creatures so tiny that you can only see them through a microscope. A virus cannot live outside of another living creature, but in order to survive and reproduce it has to latch onto something else like a plant, an animal or a human.
For this reason, viruses make it their job to spread from person to person so that they can produce more of themselves. The problem for us is that a lot of viruses, like the swine flu virus, harm us when they are inside of us.
This is why doctors are currently working really hard to try to develop a vaccine for the swine flu virus. A vaccine is a very clever way of teaching your body to resist a virus. What happens is, a doctor injects you with a very small amount of a harmless form of the virus. The body then figures out what type of virus it is and begins to produce the necessary antibodies to fight it off. That means that if you ever catch the virus for real, the body already has the materials that it needs to cure you!
If someone already has swine flu then they cannot be vaccinated, but instead they can be treated by flu drugs – one well known flu drug used for swine flu is called Tamiflu. They can't completely cure the disease but make it less severe last less long. They do this by destroying some of the things that the virus needs in order to continue to reproduce.
So how can we make sure we avoid catching it? Well one of the best ways to avoid it is just to wash your hands regularly. You see, sometimes you can catch a virus from being sneezed or coughed on. Other times, if the germs from someone's sneezing and coughing have landed on a surface, and you touch your nose or mouth after touching that surface, you can catch the illness. The solution to this is to wash your hands regularly (but not too regularly) so that the germs don't get a chance to get inside of you.
Finally, another way to stop the disease spreading is to make sure that sick people stay home from school or work. That way we reduce the risk of them giving the disease to the people that they come near within the day. If you're feeling ill, make sure that you talk to your parents and they will take you to a doctor who will make you better if they think it is serious enough.
Image credit: Flickr
The disease has now spread around the world, with someone in almost every country being affected. This is why it is now called a “pandemic”. A pandemic is what we call it when a serious disease spreads around the world.
The scientific name for swine flu is H1N1, and it is caused by a virus. Viruses are biological creatures so tiny that you can only see them through a microscope. A virus cannot live outside of another living creature, but in order to survive and reproduce it has to latch onto something else like a plant, an animal or a human.
For this reason, viruses make it their job to spread from person to person so that they can produce more of themselves. The problem for us is that a lot of viruses, like the swine flu virus, harm us when they are inside of us.
This is why doctors are currently working really hard to try to develop a vaccine for the swine flu virus. A vaccine is a very clever way of teaching your body to resist a virus. What happens is, a doctor injects you with a very small amount of a harmless form of the virus. The body then figures out what type of virus it is and begins to produce the necessary antibodies to fight it off. That means that if you ever catch the virus for real, the body already has the materials that it needs to cure you!
If someone already has swine flu then they cannot be vaccinated, but instead they can be treated by flu drugs – one well known flu drug used for swine flu is called Tamiflu. They can't completely cure the disease but make it less severe last less long. They do this by destroying some of the things that the virus needs in order to continue to reproduce.
So how can we make sure we avoid catching it? Well one of the best ways to avoid it is just to wash your hands regularly. You see, sometimes you can catch a virus from being sneezed or coughed on. Other times, if the germs from someone's sneezing and coughing have landed on a surface, and you touch your nose or mouth after touching that surface, you can catch the illness. The solution to this is to wash your hands regularly (but not too regularly) so that the germs don't get a chance to get inside of you.
Finally, another way to stop the disease spreading is to make sure that sick people stay home from school or work. That way we reduce the risk of them giving the disease to the people that they come near within the day. If you're feeling ill, make sure that you talk to your parents and they will take you to a doctor who will make you better if they think it is serious enough.
Labels: swine flu
posted by Admin at
10:11
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