Reference no: EM132612122

Background:Background sources:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXvcLPjoEI0The Evolution of a Virus

The 1918 Spanish Flu is a classic example of a pandemic. The H1N1 influenza virus circled the globe and killed an estimated 50 million people.

For this homework assignment, view the video from Jeffrey Taubenberger and review the sources from PBS on the evolution of a virus and origins of influenza. Visit these background sources and read over the week three lesson before you start on the questions. Key information contained in the video and background sources are needed before you will be able to address the questions accurately.

Jeffrey Taubenberger

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/the-evolution-of-a-virus/224/

The Origins of Influenza

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/the-origins-of-influenza/221/

1. What questions must scientists answer to fully understand the 1918 flu pandemic?
2. Why is it important to understand the genetic basis of the 1918 influenza virus?
3. Where do scientists think that the 1918 virus originated? What evidence supports this?
4. How did the illness get the nickname Spanish Flu?
5. How did WW I contribute to the spreading of this flu?
6. What is the current explanation of why this flu attacked mostly the young and healthy?
7. How does a virus survive and thrive?
8. Why is it easy for a virus to mutate?
9. What evidence did scientists use to find and identify the virus from 1918?
10. Why didn't this virus need to mutate as it spread throughout the human population?