This time of year, in this year
especially, there is a lot of buzz and fear over viruses. Ebola and Enterovirus D68 have been particularly newsworthy due
to some tragic losses and some miraculous recoveries. I am not going
to write about the politics or statistics of these viruses here,
however, I would like to try to answer these questions: What is a
virus anyway? How can we educate our children accurately without
scaring them?
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| Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus |
We can trace our discovery of viruses
back to 1898 when it was found that the cause of foot and mouth
disease in lifestock was something even smaller than bacteria.
Although we did not have a clear indication of what that meant yet,
it was the first evidence that illness could be caused by something
else. Viruses, although unwanted in many cases, are truly brilliant.
Outside of a host they are enclosed in a membrane, protein coat or
capsid that encases the DNA and RNA that codes for their particular
strain of virus. They depend on a host to reproduce, so once they
have traveled through some vector (air, water, bodily fluids) they
reach the cells of the host. Once in the host cell the virus inserts
its DNA into the cell, which essentially takes over the cell and the
virus uses the cell's abilities for itself. The cell begins to
produce more of the virus rather than complete its normal tasks.
Eventually, the viral material bursts from the cell and continues to
find new cells to infect. Viral diseases come in many forms and use
many vectors to travel. Ebola is an example of a virus that is not
airborne, it travels through contact with bodily fluids. Enterovirus
D68 on the other hand is one that is spread through the air when
someone sneezes or coughs. There are thousands of viruses ranging
from the common cold, to chicken pox, to AIDS.
So how do we teach about viruses? In
general, I believe that if kids learn about good hygiene, what a virus is, how their
body fights disease and how grown-ups are working hard to keep them
healthy, then we have done our job. It also doesn't hurt to
keep exposure to the news media at a minimum since kids interpret
what they hear in many different ways. There are many good resources
to teach kids about health and their body. One of my favorites to use
with my students is www.kidshealth.org. There are many interactives,
articles and videos here to help understand their body and health.
They also keep up to date with current health issues and write about
them in an accurate and age appropriate way, such as this recent
article on Ebola.
Another good resource is NSF International's "Scrub Club"
website. This site is full of cartoons,
games and other fun resources to teach about germs and sanitation. Excellent resources for older students and adults are: The Encyclopedia of Life, The Big Picture Book of Viruses and Cells Alive!
There have also been several interesting
blog posts by Travis Good about innovations to help reign in Ebola in a series entitled:
"Makers Against Ebola". This is part of a larger design
challenge called "Fighting Ebola: A Grand Challenge for Development" by Open IDEO, which is a community for designers and
makers for social good. Sounds like a great prompt for some
innovation or engineering projects at school or home!
How do you
teach your kids or students about health and viruses? If you know of
a great resource please add it in the comment section!
Resources for Kids and Adults about Health and Viruses:
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