INITIATING QUESTIONS
1. What is an epidemic?
An epidemic is defined by an illness or health-related issue that is showing up in more cases than would be normally expected.
2.What is a pandemic?
First a pandemic is normally used to indicate a far higher number of people affected than an epidemic, and a pandemic refers to a much larger region affected.
3. What is an infectious disease?
A disease that transmit itself by air water or food, it infects healthy people.
4. What is a virus?
A microorganism smaller than a bacteria, which cannot grow or reproduce apart from a living cell. A virus invades living cells and uses their chemical machinery to keep itself alive and to replicate itself.
5. What makes the H1N1 virus a "novel" or "new" virus?
H1N1 (referred to as “swine flu” early on) is a new influenza virus causing illness in people. This new virus was first detected in people in the United States in April 2009. Other countries, including Mexico and Canada, have reported people sick with this new virus. This virus is spreading from person-to-person, probably in much the same way that regular seasonal influenza viruses spread.
6. How do viruses mutate?
It mutate because the environment conditions and it affect with a different manner to each person because each person is different and had more or less defense to combat the virus.
7. What does it mean that this virus has "parts" from other known swine flues, human flus and American bird flus?
Because the virus has muted and changed its composes Mexico had a vacuum for the normal influenza virus, but the World Health Organization declared that the vacuum would not be useful because this was a different kind of virus.
8. How does that process happen?
With the environment conditions and the overcrowded people that are in big cities.
9. How is the flu vaccine created?
By this time there is not a vaccine created for this virus but there is controlled by washing our hands use a mouth mask and not go to crowded places.

10. Why are some viruses transmittable from human to human while others are not (avian flu)?
Because the virus muted and there are diseases that only pass from animal to animal and others are passed from person to person like VH1 virus.
11. How does Tami flu work?

Tami flu is an antiviral drug used in the treatment and prophylaxis of both Influenza virus A and Influenza virus B. Like zanamivr, Tami flu is a neuraminidase inhibitor. It acts as a transition-state analogue inhibitor of influenza neuraminidase, preventing new viruses from emerging from

12. Scientists worry that H1N1 might become resistant to Tami flu. How might that happen?
It might happen because the virus affects different to each people, and Tami flu would not work on them because they are less resist full.

READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. What is the most predictable thing about influenza?
That it passes from person to persona and that the issue its big because the virus had killed many people.
2. How many people have died in Mexico? (based on the article as well as on latest news)
68 deaths in Mexico by the influenza virus.
3. Name 3 countries where swine flu has been confirmed in the last three days.
Argentina, Israel, Spain.4. What are the symptoms of the swine flu?
Are Faber, head ache, flu, temperature,etc.5. When was the outbreak of the Spanish flu?
The pandemic lasted from March 1918 to June 19206. What percentage of the world population died of influenza then?
50 to 100 million people were killed worldwide7. Why was there an emergency vaccination program in 1976?
It started on January 27, 1976, when a small outbreak of mild respiratory illness occurred at the Fort Dix Army Base in New Jersey. Throat cultures taken from sick soldiers grew out what laboratorians at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified as a “swine-like flu virus which was believed to have been inactive in the human population since 1930 with the exception of a handful of cases of swine-to-person transmission.
9. What were the consequences for Mexico and Mexicans due to the actions taken by the government?
Well the actions taken by the Mexican Gov were the correct ones because they acted quickly to confront the influenza issue, by telling them how to be safe and how to protect their selves.10. What industries were particularly hard hit?
In Mexico there were damaged the Industries of Tourism, Restaurants and entertainment industries because all the people were in their houses.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Mexico has shut down schools and other public spaces; do you think that was the correct thing to do? Why or why not?
Yes because if the issue goes to overcrowded places like this the kids can be infected quickly and this could make a pandemic.
2. More people die from the regular flu then from swine flu, why do you think this became a big news story?
Because the Normal flue mutated very quickly and the regular flu had more years that had be been confronted by medicines, and this flue is new and infect quickly the persons.
3. Why did people stop visiting Mexico? Why have Mexicans been discriminated? Do you think the fear of the disease is justified?
Because They in some way hadn’t information about the new disease.4. What questions about individual and human rights does preventing the spread of flu raise?
People can travel with freedom to everywhere and in some places are discriminating Mexicans because they think every Mexican is infected, but its not and they are having them in quarantine.