Medicines and infectious diseases booklet
Medicines and infectious diseases booklet
- Unit 1: Living things
- Unit 2: Energy
- Unit 3: Materials
- Unit 4: Earth and its habitats
- Unit 5: Light
- Unit 6: Electricity
🌟 This Topic is About...
- 💊 I will learn why we take medicines.
- 🩺 I will describe how to take medicines safely.
- 🦠 I will find out that plants, animals, and people can get infectious diseases.
- 💉 I will learn how vaccinations help prevent some diseases in people and animals.
- 🔬 I will do research to answer questions about vaccinations.
Let’s explore how medicines and vaccines help keep us healthy! 🌡️🌟
🌟 Key Words
- germs
- infect
- infectious disease
- instructions
- medicines
- prevent
- vaccinations
📖 Tap to Learn the Meanings!
- 🦠 germs: tiny living things that can cause disease, like bacteria or viruses.
- 😷 infect: when germs get into your body and start making you ill.
- 🤒 infectious disease: an illness that can spread from one person to another.
- 📋 instructions: steps or advice that tell you how to do something safely and correctly.
- 💊 medicines: substances used to treat or cure illnesses.
- 🛡️ prevent: to stop something bad, like an illness, from happening.
- 💉 vaccinations: injections that protect you from certain diseases.
Great job learning new words! 🎉
Medicines
We take medicines to help make us better when we have an illness. Some medicines stop us from getting ill. We say that these medicines prevent us from getting ill.
Taking medicines safely
Medicines make us better, but we have to take them safely and properly. You should only take medicines if they are given to you by a doctor, a nurse or an adult who looks after you. All medicines come with instructions.
The instructions tell you how much medicine you must take and how often you should take it. We must always follow those instructions.
Quick Fact
Some medicines, like vaccines, protect us before we get sick by helping our bodies fight future infections.
🔬 Think like a Scientist: How to Take Medicines Safely
🤔 Question: What are the safe and correct ways to take medicines?
Arun and his friends talked about how to take medicines safely. These are their ideas:
💬 Child 1: “It’s okay to take someone else’s medicine if they have the same illness as you.”
💬 Child 2: “If you forget to take your medicine in the morning, just take more at lunchtime.”
💬 Child 3: “If the instructions tell you to take the medicine with food, you must make sure that you do.”
💬 Child 4: “You must always take the right amount of medicine. If you take too much it can be harmful.”
❓ Questions:
🌟 Tap to See Answers
- 1: Discuss each idea to see which ones are safe or unsafe. Only take medicine given by a doctor or adult. 🚫💊
- 2: Arun’s first two ideas are wrong — never take someone else’s medicine or double a missed dose. The last two ideas are correct — always follow the instructions and dosage carefully. ✅
- 3: Your information sheet could include points like:
- Always ask an adult before taking medicine.
- Read and follow the instructions on the label.
- Never share medicines with others.
- Keep medicines out of reach of children.
You showed excellent reasoning about safety — real scientists think carefully before taking action! 👏
How we take medicines
We can take medicines in different ways.
We take some medicines as injections. Some injections can stop or prevent us from getting illnesses such as measles or flu. These injections are called vaccinations.
We breathe in medicines from inhalers for asthma and other breathing problems.
We use creams and ointments to stop insect bites itching and for skin problems.
People who are very sick in hospital often get their medicine directly into their blood through a drip.
Quick Fact
Medicines can be taken in many forms — tablets, syrups, creams, sprays, or injections — depending on how quickly and where they need to work in the body.
💊 FUN QUESTIONS — Medicines and Health
1. Why do we take medicines? 💊🤕
🌟 Show answer
2. Predict what you think would happen if you did not take all of the medicine the doctor gave you. 💭
🌟 Show answer
3. Do you think we can use a cream as a medicine for a sore throat? Say why or why not. 🧴👄
🌟 Show answer
4. Why do you think people in hospital often get their medicine through a drip? 💧🏥
🌟 Show answer
🔬 Think like a Scientist: Research Information About Vaccinations
🤔 Question: How have vaccinations helped protect people from infectious diseases, and how have they changed over time?
📚 Research Task:
Vaccinations can prevent some infectious diseases in people. Do some research to find out the following information about vaccinations.
🧪 History of Vaccinations:
- Who invented the first vaccinations?
- Which disease did the first vaccinations prevent?
- How were the vaccinations made and given?
💉 Vaccinations Today:
- Is there a vaccination programme for children in your local area?
- If so, which diseases are children vaccinated against?
- How are the vaccinations for the different diseases given? (For example, an injection to prevent flu.)
- How have the ways of giving vaccinations changed since the time of the first vaccination?
📢 Task: Be prepared to share your findings with your class. 👩🔬👨🔬
🌟 Tap to See Answers
- History: Edward Jenner invented the first vaccination in 1796 to protect against smallpox. 🧫
- The vaccine was made from material taken from cowpox blisters and given by scratching it into the skin. 🐄💉
- Today: Children are vaccinated against diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, polio, and diphtheria. 💪
- Modern vaccines are given by injection, nasal spray, or oral drops and are carefully tested for safety.
- Vaccines now use weakened or inactive parts of microbes, or instructions for the body to make proteins that build immunity.
Vaccinations are one of science’s greatest achievements — they protect millions of lives every year! 🌍👏
Infectious diseases
An infectious disease is a disease that is caused by very tiny living things we call germs. The germs infect your body. This means the germs get into your body and make you ill. We take medicines to kill the germs that infect our bodies.
People, animals and plants can all have infectious diseases. Flu, measles and malaria are some infectious diseases that humans can have.
Infectious diseases in plants can harm different parts of the plant. For example, leaf blast can kill young rice plants.
Bird flu is an infectious disease that infects birds, humans and other animals. Almost all birds that get bird flu die. Bird flu spreads easily from sick birds to healthy birds. The farmer in the picture is checking the chicken for signs of bird flu. Many farmers give vaccinations to their chickens, geese and ducks to prevent them from getting bird flu.
Quick Fact
Infectious diseases can spread through air, water, contact, or bites from insects. Washing hands and getting vaccinated are key ways to stay protected.
🧫 FUN QUESTIONS — Infectious Diseases
1. Say in your own words what an infectious disease is. 🦠
🌟 Show answer
2. Why do you think the farmer in the picture wears gloves when she checks the chicken for signs of bird flu? 🧤🐔
🌟 Show answer
3. How can the farmer prevent the chicken from getting bird flu? 🐣