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Deadly Diseases Amongs Us

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DEADLY DISEASES AMONG US
(Science Education NIH Supplement) 1. What disease do you think is the greatest threat to students in this class? Why do you believe that? What disease do you think is the greatest threat to the world’s population? Why do you believe that?
Influenza would have to be the greatest threat. This disease is very resilient and even with a vaccine; society is still susceptible to getting infected. The disease has been given a specific time of year where it can be acquired. I feel cancer is the world’s greatest threat to the population. The disease has no known cause and no clear cut cure. By not having an identifiable cause the disease is very dangerous because society have no idea as to what avoid or what to do to prevent it. Even with all the foundations in cancer research, scientist still know very little about cancer.

2. Take the quiz on some past and current causes of death and illness (scroll down for quiz). I do not expect you to know the answers to these questions, but make well-reasoned guesses based on what you do know.

3. The quiz emphasized the impact of infectious diseases on people’s health and well-being. Even though medical advances in the last century have resulted in far fewer deaths from infectious diseases than at any other time in history, those diseases are still the leading cause of death worldwide and the third leading cause of death in the United States. In this activity you will learn about some infectious diseases that cause problems in the world today.

Review the Causes of Death Quiz and identify some of the infectious and noninfectious diseases listed there. Noninfectious diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and cystic fibrosis cannot be “caught,” and infectious diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis are caused by living (or quasi-living, in the case of viruses) agents that can be transmitted from one

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