Published by Australian Academy of Science
Activity 4 | Immunisation – protecting our children from disease

Library research on an infectious disease

Use library resources to investigate an infectious disease and present the information you have found to the class.

You should be able to find information about some or all of the following aspects of the disease:

• type of pathogen that causes the disease;

• symptoms;

• mode of transmission;

• prevention of spread;

• possible treatment(s);

• availability of a vaccine;

• history or myths about the disease.

Teachers notes

If students have difficulty selecting a disease, you could suggest one of the following: malaria, smallpox, polio, whooping cough (pertussis), diphtheria, chicken pox, measles, rubella, glandular fever, tuberculosis, typhoid, mumps, tetanus, yellow fever, influenza, hepatitis A, B, or C, AIDS, pneumonia, herpes, anthrax, cholera, Ebola virus, Legionnaire’s disease, Murray Valley encephalitis, epidemic polyarthritis (Ross River fever), rheumatic fever, amoebic dysentery, typhus, chlamydia, syphilis, gonorrhoea.