Eenie, meanie, mynie, mo. Catch a Virus, watch it grow. Once it’s got you, it won’t go.

2. Eenie, meanie, mynie, mo. Catch a Virus, watch it grow. Once it’s got you, it won’t go. Eeenie, meanie, my-oh no!

3. A Germ of An Idea Worksheet

4. You and Your Immune System • To be immune means to be protected. • So it makes sense that the body system that helps fight off sickness is called the immune system. • The immune system is made up of a network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to protect the body. • White blood cells, also called leukocytes are part of this defense system. • There are two basic types of these germ-fighting cells: • phagocytes which chew up invading germs • lymphocytes which allow the body to remember and recognize previous invaders

5. You and Your Immune System • Your lymphatic system is home to these germ-fighting cells, too. • You've encountered your lymphatic system if you've ever had swollen "glands" on the sides of your neck, like when you have a sore throat. • Although we call them "glands," they are actually lymph nodes and they contain clusters of immune system cells. • Normally, lymph nodes are small and round and you don't notice them. • But when they're swollen, it means your immune system is at work.

6. You and Your Immune System • Lymph nodes work like filters to remove germs that could hurt you. • Lymph nodes, and the tiny channels that connect them to each other, contain lymph, a clear fluid with leukocytes (white blood cells) in it. • Beside your neck, you have lymph nodes behind your knees, in your armpits, and in your groin — just to name a few. • So you have this great system in place. Is it enough to keep you from getting sick? • Well, everyone gets sick sometimes. • But your immune system helps you get well again. • And if you've had your shots, your body is extra-prepared to fight off serious illnesses that your immune system alone might not handle very well.

7. You and Your Immune System • Sometimes a person has a problem with his or her immune system. • Allergies are one kind of problem — the immune system overreacts and treats something harmless, like peanuts, as something really dangerous to the body. • With certain medical conditions, such as lupus or juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, instead of fighting germs, the immune system fights the good cells and this can cause problems. • Other immune system problems may develop due to an illness like HIV/AIDS or cancer.

8. You and Your Immune System • You can't prevent most immune system disorders. • But if they happen, they can be treated with medicine and in other ways to help the person feel good and be healthy again. • If you have an immune system problem, your doctor can help teach you ways to take care of yourself so you stay strong and are able to fight off illness. Immunologists (are doctors who specialize in immune system problems. • Healthy kids can help their immune systems by: • washing their hands regularly to prevent infections • eating nutritious foods • getting plenty of exercise • getting regular medical checkups. • And if you feel great today, thank your immune system!

9. Brain Pop! • Immune system

10. What is a virus? • A virus is one of the smallest germs that attacks a living cell. • Viruses need to be inside living cells to grow and reproduce. • Most viruses can't survive very long if they're not inside a living thing like a plant, animal, or person. • When viruses get inside people's bodies, they can spread and make people sick. • Viruses cause chickenpox, measles, flu, and many other diseases. • Because some viruses can live for a while on something like a doorknob or countertop, be sure to wash your hands regularly!

11. Brain Pop ! • viruses

12. What is bacteria? • Bacteria are tiny, one-cell creatures that get nutrients from their environments in order to live. • In some cases that environment is a human body. • Bacteria can reproduce outside of the body or within the body as they cause infections. • Some infections bacteria cause include sore throats (tonsillitis or strep throat), ear infections, cavities, and pneumonia.

13. What is Bacteria? • But not all bacteria are bad. • Some bacteria are good for our bodies — they help keep things in balance. • Good bacteria live in our intestines and help us use the nutrients in the food we eat and make waste from what's left over. • We couldn't make the most of a healthy meal without these important helper germs! • Some bacteria are also used by scientists in labs to produce medicines and vaccines. • Only about two percent of all bacteria are dangerous to us.

14. Shapes of Bacteria Cocci = spheres • Bacilli = rods Spirilla = spirals

15. Brain Pop! • bacteria

16. Communicable Diseases • A Communicable disease is a virus or bacteria that can be spread from one person to another. • They can be spread through the air and through direct contact.

17. Communicable Diseases • Examples: • Colds • The flu • Chicken pox • Strep throat • pneumonia

18. Cold Virus • What is a cold? • Having a cold is the #1 reason kids visit the doctor and stay home from school. Kids get up to eight colds per year with each cold lasting an average of 5 to 7 days. • A cold is an infection of the upper respiratory system. This just means it affects the nose, throat, and ears.

19. Cold Virus • The rhinovirus is the most common cold virus, but more than 200 viruses can cause colds. • Because there are so many, there isn't a vaccination, or shot, to prevent you from getting colds. • Fortunately, your body already has the best cold cure your immune system. • The immune system defends your body against illness. • White blood cells are the immune system's main warriors. • They're your own private army working to help you feel better. Take that, cold viruses!

20. Flu Virus • What Is the Flu? • Influenza is also called the flu. It's an infection that causes fever, chills, cough, body aches, headaches, and sometimes earaches or sinus problems. • The flu is caused by the influenza virus.

21. Flu Virus • If you get the flu vaccine, by nose spray or shot, it will protect you from getting a bad case of the flu. • You either won't get the flu at all or, if you do get it, you will have only mild symptoms and you should get better pretty quickly. • You might wonder why you have to get a flu shot every year. Here’s why: There are lots of different flu viruses. • Each year, researchers choose the three viruses most likely to cause trouble. The flu vaccine includes protection against those three, which vary from year to year.

22. Brain Pop! • Flu and flu vaccine

23. Chicken Pox • Chickenpox is caused by a virus called varicella zoster. • People who get the virus often develop a rash of spots that look like blisters all over their bodies. • The blisters are small and sit on an area of red skin that can be anywhere from the size of a pencil eraser to the size of a dime. • The number of pox is different for everyone. Some people get just a few bumps; others are covered from head to toe.

24. Chicken Pox • You've probably heard that chickenpox are itchy. It's true! • It usually takes 10-14 days for all the blisters to be scabbed over and then you are no longer contagious. • Don't Scratch! Scratching the blisters can tear your skin and leave scars. Scratching also can let germs in, and the blisters could get infected. • Get a Shot, Avoid the Dots! • The really good news is that, thanks to the chickenpox vaccine, lots of kids don't get chickenpox at all. • Kids who do get it after they've gotten the shot often get less severe cases, which means they get better quicker.

25. Strep Throat • Strep throat is a disease caused by tiny egg-shaped bacteria called group A streptococci. • If a kid has strep throat, the doctor will probably give him or her medicine called an antibiotic, which will kill the strep bacteria. • Your doctor will look into your mouth to see if your throat is red and your tonsils are swollen and covered with white or yellow spots. • He or she will also look for small red spots on the roof of your mouth. • Most of the time, strep will give you a sore throat, headache, stomachache, and fever.

26. Strep Throat • To be sure that what you have is strep throat, your doctor may do one or two tests. • First, he or she can do a rapid strep test to check for strep bacteria by rubbing a cotton swab over the back of your throat. • With this test, the doctor may be able to find out in less than 1 hour if you have strep throat. • If the first test doesn't prove anything, then your doctor might do a longer test called a throat culture. • A swab from your throat will then be rubbed on a special dish and the dish will be left to sit for 2 nights. • If you have strep throat, streptococci bacteria will usually grow in the dish within 1-2 days.

27. Pneumonia • Pneumonia is an infection of one or both lungs. • With bacterial pneumonia, a kid might feel sick suddenly and have a high fever with chills. • The viral kind of pneumonia might happen more slowly and take longer to go away. • A cold or flu that gets worse can turn into pneumonia. • Either way, a kid might feel like he or she has the flu with a cough, fever, headache, and sometimes belly pain. • Pneumonia often causes chest discomfort, too — and a feeling like you can't quite catch your breath. • You might be breathing faster than usual and may cough up gloppy mucus. bacterial viral

28. Pneumonia • The doctor will listen to your chest with a stethoscope. • If there's fluid in there — a sign of pneumonia — they might be able to hear bubbling or crackling sounds called rales. • If your doctor thinks you could have pneumonia, they may order a chest X-ray or begin treatment right away. • If the pneumonia is caused by bacteria, antibiotic medicine will be given. • Antibiotics won't work on viruses, so if that's the cause of the pneumonia, only fever reducers and sometimes cough medicine will be suggested.

29. Pneumonia • You might hear people say someone has double pneumonia or walking pneumonia but what does this mean? • Double pneumonia means the infection is in both lungs. • Walking pneumonia means that you have pneumonia, but it’s mild enough that you don’t need to go to the hospital.

30. Vaccines • A vaccine is a substance that is made up of dead or weakened germs, put into the body to strengthen its defenses against a disease. • Some common vaccines are for the flu and chicken pox,.

31. Non-Communicable Diseases • A non-communicable disease is one which cannot be spread from one person to another.

32. Non-Communicable Diseases • Some examples are: • Allergies • Diabetes • Cancer • Broken bones

33. Allergies • An allergy is your immune system's reaction to certain plants, animals, foods, insect bites, or other things. • Your immune system protects you from diseases by fighting germs like bacteria and viruses, but when you have allergies, it overreacts and tries to "fight" ordinary things like grass, pollen, or certain foods. • This causes the sneezing, itching, and other reactions that you get with allergies. • The substances that cause allergies (grass, pollen, foods, pet by-products, insects, etc.) are called allergens. • When your immune system reacts to one of these allergens and you have symptoms, you are allergic to it.

34. Allergies • People may be born with a genetic tendency to have allergies, which means they are more likely to get them than other people are. • you have a better chance of having allergies if your mom or dad or other people in your family have them. • Sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference between a cold and an allergy because the symptoms can be similar. • If your cold symptoms last more than 2 weeks, you probably have an allergy instead of a cold. • With allergies, your nose and eyes itch. Colds don't itch. • The mucus, the stuff that comes from your nose or that you cough up, is different, too. With allergies, it's clear like water. With a cold, it's usually yellowish and thick.

35. Allergies • An allergist may give you a scratch test to see if a tiny bit of an allergen will cause a reaction on your skin. • If you're allergic, one or more spots will become bumpy, itchy, and red — like a mosquito bite. • Your doctor will probably suggest ways to stay away from the allergen or prescribe a medicine for you to try. • Allergy medicine can be pills, liquids, or even sprays for your nose. If your allergies aren't too bad or if you can avoid the allergen completely, you might not need to take medicine — staying away from the allergen might be enough to control your allergy. • If your symptoms don't get better by staying away from allergens and taking medicines, an allergist might recommend allergy shots. • These shots make your immune system less sensitive to the allergens and can make your symptoms better.

36. Brain Pop! • boogers

37. Diabetes • Diabetes is a disease that affects how the body uses glucose a sugar that is the body's main source of fuel. • Just as an iPod needs a battery, your body needs glucose to keep running. • Here's how it should work. • You eat. • Glucose from the food gets into your bloodstream. • Your pancreas makes a hormone called insulin. • Insulin helps the glucose get into the body's cells. • Your body gets the energy it needs. • But if someone has diabetes, the body either can't make insulin or the insulin doesn't work in the body like it should. • The glucose can't get into the cells normally, so the blood sugar level gets too high. • Lots of sugar in the blood makes people sick if they don't get treatment.

38. Diabetes • Kids who have type 1 diabetes have to pay a little more attention to what they're eating and doing than kids without diabetes. • They need to: • check their blood sugar levels often • give themselves insulin shots, have someone help give them shots, or use an insulin pump • follow a healthy eating plan so they can keep blood sugar levels under control and grow normally • exercise regularly • have regular checkups with doctors and other people on their diabetes health care team so they can stay healthy and get treatment for any diabetes problems

39. Brain Pop! • diabetes

40. Cancer • Cancer is actually a group of many related diseases that all have to do with cells. • Cells are the very small units that make up all living things, including the human body. • There are billions of cells in each person's body. • Cancer happens when cells that are not normal grow and spread very fast. • Normal body cells grow and divide and know to stop growing. • Over time, they also die. • Unlike these normal cells, cancer cells just continue to grow and divide out of control and don't die when they're supposed to.

41. Cancer • Doctors aren't sure why some people get cancer and others don't. • They do know that cancer is not contagious. • You can't catch it from someone else who has it, cancer isn't caused by germs, like colds or the flu are. • If the doctor suspects cancer, he or she can do tests to figure out if that's the problem. • A doctor might order X-rays and blood tests and recommend the person go to see an oncologist

42. Cancer • Cancer is treated with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation — or sometimes a combination of these treatments. • Chemotherapy is the use of anti-cancer medicines to treat cancer. These medicines are sometimes taken as a pill, but usually are given through a special IV. • Radiation therapy uses high-energy waves, such as X-rays to damage and destroy cancer cells. • Surgery is the oldest form of treatment for cancer — 3 out of every 5 people with cancer will have an operation to remove it. During surgery, the doctor tries to take out as many cancer cells as possible.

43. Brain Pop! • cancer

44. Broken Bones • Your bones are tough stuff — but even tough stuff can break. • Like a wooden pencil, bones will bend under strain. • But if the pressure is too much, or too sudden, bones can snap. • When a bone breaks it is called a fracture. • There's more than one way to break or fracture a bone. • A break can be anything from a hairline fracture (a thin break in the bone) to the bone that's snapped in two pieces like a broken tree branch.

45. Broken Bones • It hurts to break a bone! • It's different for everyone, but the pain is often like the deep ache you get from a super bad stomachache or headache. • Some people may experience sharper pain — especially with an open fracture. • And if the fracture is small, a kid may not feel much pain at all. Sometimes, kids won't even be able to tell that they broke a bone! • The worst thing for a broken bone is to move it. • This will hurt the person and it can make the injury worse! • In the case of a broken arm or leg, a grown-up may be able to cushion or support the surrounding area with towels or pillows.

46. Broken Bones • To treat the broken bone, the doctor needs to know which kind of fracture it is. • That's where X-rays come in handy. X-rays give doctors a map of fractures so that they can set the bones back in their normal position. • After your bone has been set, the next step is usually putting on a cast, the special bandage that will keep the bone in place for the 1 to 2 months it will take for the break to mend.

47. infected – contaminated with a disease • disease – an abnormal condition that interferes with functioning and can usually be recognized by signs and symptoms • virus – any large group of very tiny infectious agents that are too small to be seen with the ordinary microscope, that can grow and multiply only in living cells, and that cause important diseases in human beings, animals, and plants

48. communicable disease – a disease which can be spread from one person to another • non-communicable disease – a disease which cannot be spread from one person to another. • growth – a process of developing • vaccine – a substance that is made up of dead or weakened germs, put into the body to strengthen its defenses against a disease.