Questions to go with “Our Immune System,” by Peter Jaret. National Geographic, June 1986. (Although this article is quite old, it is well written and serves as a good foundation for us!)

Directions: Answer the following questions in your journal after reading “Our Immune System: Wars Within.” Be sure to phrase the questions in your answers. Notice that the article has six parts, each beginning with an enlarged capital letter.

E section of article

1. What metaphor does Jaret (the author) use for the body’s response to an infection?

2. What inventions in the past 20 years have changed the study of immunology and made it more powerful? Give the one

Jaret suggests… but try to think of a second one on your own!

3. What kind of animal host did the ancestor of the AIDS virus infect, harmlessly?

4. What enabled the virus (now called HIV or the AIDS virus) to start infecting humans?

5. In what year were the first reports of the disease that would come to be known as AIDS?

6. What is Kaposi’s sarcoma? Describe its symptoms.

7. Besides Kaposi’s sarcoma, what other symptoms did Jimmy, the author’s friend, experience before he died?

N section of article

8. Please recopy the table below into your journal and fill it in. (HINT: don’t forget to read the captions to the pictures!)

Kind of Pathogen

Names and brief descriptions of two examples of diseases caused by that kind of pathogen

Bacteria

Parasites

Viruses

9. How, generally, do viruses hurt their hosts?

A, H and B sections of article

10. Please recopy the following table into your journal and fill it in.

Component of the Immune System

Is it a Cell or a Molecule?

What is Its Job or Function?

Phagocytes under the skin

Macrophages

Antigens

Receptors on T cells

Helper T cells

Killer T cells

B cells

Antibodies

Suppressor T cells

Memory cells

C section of article

11. Name and describe two autoimmune diseases.

12. Explain why allergies are inappropriate immune responses.

…Two “thought” questions (c’mon, give ‘em a try!)

13. Name an infectious disease that is NOT contagious!

14. Why are antibiotics (look at that word, carefully!) ineffective against an illness caused by a virus?