Avian Flu, by Tamra Orr - Large Print Reviews

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Also available: 20 point Super Large Print edition

Avian Flu
By Tamra Orr
Read How You Want, (2011)
EasyRead Large Print, in 16 Point Font
(Originally Published in Standard Print by Rosen Publishing)
ISBN: 9781427086624
Genre: Health, Science, Young Adult

Reviewed by Herbert White - February 28, 2012

Pandemic flu is one of those old bugaboos that has haunted mankind ever since the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that killed an estimated 50-100 million people world wide, and sickened more than 500 million. At the time, the world's population was only about 1.9 billion. The fear has always been that a virulent flu outbreak, such as the one in 1918 might one day reappear. So far we have been fortunate. While there have been pandemic flu outbreaks in the succeeding years, they have paled in comparison to the 1918 outbreak. However, a new virus has emerged that many think, should it become easily transmitted, could create a pandemic that would match if not succeed that of 1918. This new virus has a name - H5N1, and it is most commonly known as Avian Flu.

In Avian Flu Tamra Orr separates the facts from the fiction concerning avian flu - and explains just what influenza is, the various forms that it can take, and how people catch the Avian Flu variety. In most cases, at least currently, it is usually caught from infected birds. If it mutates so that it can be easily transmitted from person to person, it has a much better chance of becoming pandemic. However, if it does become easily transmitted between humans, it does not necessarily mean that it will cause a pandemic, or if it did, that it would cause a pandemic with a high death toll. Orr also looks at what happens to a person's body when they become infected with Avian Flu, how it is treated, and what can be done to stop the spread of Avian Flu.

Avian Flu is part of Rosen Publishing's "Coping in a Changing World" series. This series is geared toward young adult readers in middle and high school. This book is designed to give readers the facts about Avian Flu, both as a means of informing them about the disease, and to help alleviate any real or imagined fears that they might have about the possibility of a looming epidemic. With clarity, Orr outlines the facts about Avian Flu and debunks many of the myths surrounding this disease. Along the way she provides readers with a brief overview of past pandemics, including the 1918 pandemic, information on what viruses are, and how pandemics arise. She looks at how Avian Flu developed, current efforts to control it and to develop treatments for those infected. She also provides a nice list of books for those looking to read more about this disease.

Avian Flu is an ideal, non-technical primer for anyone, young or old, interested in learning about Avian Flu - its past, its present, and its possible future.

Avian Flu is available from Read How You Want, an on-demand publisher that makes books available in a variety of formats including Braille, DAISY, and five different large print formats. This range of formats makes this, and other books, available not only to visually impaired individuals, but also anyone with a reading or physical disability that makes reading standard print books difficult.

Related Reviews:

Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918, by Gina Kolata.
In this book, Kolata offers the reader an in-depth look at the 1918 influenza pandemic; including what influenza is, the effects that the epidemic had both politically and culturally, and its long term aftereffects.
Dread, by Philip Alcabes.
How Fear and Fantasy have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to Avian Flu.

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