Read the text and select the correct answer to complete the sentence that follows.
The impact of ‘Spanish’ Flu in 1918 was devastating. Estimated deaths are put at up to 50 million victims, with hundreds of millions more infected. Many factors are believed to be behind the outbreak and its spread, including poor health infrastructure and secondary bacterial infections.
Modern research has come up with the knowledge that the disease was so devastating because of the speed with which the virus multiplied, which ironically caused the body to produce an excess of protective chemicals, which can be toxic when over-produced, called the cytokine storm. It is interesting to note that one of the reasons that the virus, and disease, ‘burned out’ was that because of the rapid spread, it ran out of suitable hosts, or potential victims. This is referred to as the ‘host density threshold theorem’. When considering the impact of outbreaks of disease, the 1918 ‘Spanish’ Flu has proven to be the great model to which modern researchers refer, and to which they look for answers to modern questions.
Since the great 1918 Pandemic, other influenza outbreaks have occurred through the last 100 years, notably in 1957, 1968 and 2009. Recent research has focused on a group of viruses called the RNA viruses, which have proven to have the ability to mutate quickly and easily, thus being the perfect catalyst for another pandemic. RNA viruses include the influenza virus plus the common cold bug, as well as the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) mutation. With increased study has come the realisation more attention needs to be paid to the RNA group of viruses in an attempt to develop antiviral drugs to treat any outbreak as well as working to try and stay ahead of any potential outbreak.
[adinserter block=”4″]The 1918 ‘Spanish’ Influenza outbreak _________
was the first recorded pandemic.
resulted in hundreds of millions of deaths.
has shown to be a useful case study which today’s research has benefited from.
caught the medical profession by surprise.
killed more people than any other disease outbreak.
- ‘was the first recorded pandemic.’
This is not correct because there is no mention of whether the 1918 Flu outbreak was the first pandemic.
- ‘resulted in hundreds of millions of deaths.’
This is not the correct answer because the text says it ‘estimated deaths are put at up to 50 million victims, with hundreds of millions more infected.’
- ‘has shown to be a useful case study which today’s research has benefited from.’
This is the correct answer. The first para ends ‘The 1918 ‘Spanish’ Flu has proven to be the great model to which modern researchers refer…’
- ‘caught the medical profession by surprise’
This is not correct because, again, there is no mention of whether the outbreak surprised the medical profession.
- ‘killed more people than any other disease outbreak.’
This is not correct because there the text does not state whether the 1918 outbreak killed more people than any other disease.