Name ____________________________________________ Period ___________ Date ___________________

Understanding Viruses
1. Define Virus:
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Some believe viruses are __________________________________ than any other forms
of life.
3. Without a living cell to invade, viruses can wait in a ____________________________
__________________ somewhere between life and death.
4. A virus is basically a piece of ________________________ ______________________________
wrapped up in a ______________________________ _____________________.
5. Can a virus live on its own? ____________________
6. Diseases caused by viruses are as lethal a force as ________________ and
____________________________ _________________________________.
7. When and where was smallpox first recorded? ___________________________________
8. Chicken Pox is a type of _____________________________________.
9. What magnification is required to see viruses? ___________________________________
10. Viruses look too ____________________________________ to be alive.
11. Viruses use the ______________________________________________________ for its own
multiplication, acting as a __________________________________.
12. The T-4 ______________________________________ is a virus that attacks bacteria.
13. _________________________________ was the scourge of the middle ages.
14. One of the worst natural disasters in recorded history was the
_____________________________ ________________________________ of 1918.
15. How many people were killed by the pandemic? _________________________________
16. What was the cause of the pandemic’s rapid and wide spread? _________________
17. Define Vaccine:
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
18. What less serious virus was used as a vaccine to smallpox? _____________________
19. What are the 3 main functions of the immune system?
a. __________________________________________
b. __________________________________________
c. __________________________________________
20. How are yellow fever, measles, and flu vaccines grown? ________________________
21. The flu virus can __________________________ to avoid the immune response.
22. Viruses that have ___________________ as its genetic material are stable from
generation to generation. You only need to be vaccinated once for these
viruses.
23. Viruses that have __________________ as its genetic material mutate frequently
and require yearly vaccines.
24. Salk immunized people for polio by _______________________ the polio virus and
injecting it into people.
25. In what year did people kill smallpox as a disease? ________________________
26. Why is there still smallpox virus stored?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
a. Would you destroy all samples of smallpox virus? ________________
b. Why or why not? ____________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
27. How did Cortez conquer Mexico with only 600 soldiers? ________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
28. When we destroy the rainforest, we are facing the danger of unknown
creatures with unknown _____________________________________.
29. There is no known treatment for _________________________________, which is
caused by exposure to mouse urine.
30. What is one theory about where the AIDS virus came from? ____________________
____________________________
31. HIV is an ___________________ virus.