Bird Flu

Bird Flu

Bird Flu
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 5 to 6
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	6.26

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		happening, influenza, waterfowl, pneumonia, domestic, flocks, naturally, meantime, occasionally, coughing, equipment, medical, virus, scientific, difference, actually
	content words:		United States, World Health Organization

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Bird Flu
By Jennifer Kenny

¹     You know what a bird is. You know what the flu is as well. But do you know what the bird flu is or how it might connect to people?

²     Bird flu is sometimes called by a more sophisticated name. Some people call it the avian flu because avian means "having to do with birds". The bird flu is caused by a type A influenza virus, but it isn't the kind that usually bothers people. Instead, it affects birds. Actually, waterfowl naturally carry it but even they don't typically get ill from it. Instead, domestic birds that get ill from the virus often die from it. Currently, it has infected birds mostly in Asia. There, it has spread rapidly through flocks of birds.

³     What's the difference between the bird flu and the flu people often get? The way the type of flu spreads is the difference. People contaminate other people with the regular flu by sneezing, coughing, and sharing their germs by leaving them on other surfaces. The avian flu spreads from bird to bird and occasionally from bird to person. At the moment, there's no case of the bird flu spreading from person to person.

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