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The Enemy

According to the World Health Organization

(WHO), each year, influenza, or the flu, makes
as many as 5 million people severely sick

and causes up to 650,000 deaths
around the world. The flu is

caused by viruses that
attack a person’s nose,

throat, and lungs.
People who have the

flu may cough and
sneeze a lot, and

have muscle aches
and pains.

Flu as the Enemy
The flu is often only a
mild disease. However, it
is very contagious, which

means it spreads easily from
person to person. As a result of
this, it can cause epidemics. This is what a single influenza virus

An epidemic is when thousands of may look like under a microscope.
people in a community or country catch Tiny though it is, the virus can turn
a disease at the same time. Pandemics are the body into a factory that spreads
epidemics that spread through many different the disease once it gets inside.

countries. For example, the 1918 pandemic
(sometimes called the Spanish flu) infected
about 500 million people. It killed at least
50 million people worldwide.

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