Viruses: Enemy of Humans Trivia Quiz

Answer: Measles

Measles is a disease of civilization, meaning that it needs to be within a large enough population that is vulnerable to it in order to spread. Once someone is vaccinated against measles, or infected by it, they are protected against it for the rest of their life. For this reason, measles is most devastating in communities in which people living there have never been infected with it.

Answer: Smallpox

Smallpox left its survivors with scars, or pocks, that no longer left the skin smooth. There is no cure for smallpox but, thanks to a campaign with the goal of worldwide immunization from smallpox, it has been declared eradicated by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Answer: Ebola

The first symptoms are similar to that of influenza but Ebola also effects the respiratory tract and the nervous system. Ebola is also known as hemorrhagic fever because many of its victims bleed from various sources in the body.

Answer: Rabies

In the ancient world, rabies was one of the most dreaded diseases because there was no cure. The first vaccination for rabies occurred in 1885 when Louis Pasteur vaccinated a boy named Joseph Meister after he was attacked by a rabid dog. Since then, rabies has been reduced although not fully eliminated in wildlife throughout the world. September 8 is World Rabies Day.

Answer: SARS

During the SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, pandemic of 2003, 8,000 people were infected in 29 countries. There were more than 700 deaths. On March 26, 2003, the Canadian province of Ontario declared an emergency because of SARS. The economy of Toronto suffered greatly because of this and within a month a concert to help Toronto's tourism industry was organized while the city was still under a SARS warning. Toronto declared itself SARS-free on July 2 and the concert was held on July 30.

The concert, called Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto, was hosted by Canadian Dan Aykroyd and featured many musicians including The Guess Who, AC/DC, and Blue Rodeo. The Rolling Stones closed the concert with a 90-minute show.

Answer: Yellow Fever

Yellow fever was very common centuries ago and it may have been brought from Africa to the New World. During that time ships were required to have a 'Yellow Jack' flag which was flown when the ship was infected with yellow fever. While this flag was up, nobody was allowed on or off the ship.

Answer: Polio

In the year 1988 various governments and international organizations launched The Global Polio Eradication Initiative with the aim of eradicating the disease by the year 2000. Though the number of polio cases dropped dramatically thanks to vaccination efforts, the goal of this initiative was not met.

Answer: Influenza

There are three main strains of influenza (A, B, and C) as well as other strains (such as H5N1). The influenza vaccine of any given year targets the most prevalent strain that's infecting people. As such, one can get vaccinated against influenza yet still become infected by a different strain.

Answer: Dengue Fever

Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) causes its victims to bleed. It's accompanied by high fevers. Dengue shock syndrome (DSS) also causes high fevers which in turn cause circulatory shock.

Answer: HIV/AIDS

Due to the vulnerability of HIV/AIDS victims' immune systems, they are at risk for opportunistic diseases and complications including tuberculosis, bacterial pneumonia, meningitis, Kaposi's sarcoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.