A group of teenage 4-H members take part in a state agricultural fair, after which one of the boys comes sick. But luckily they have also attended the CDC’s Disease Detective Camp in Atlanta and use their newly acquired detective skills to find out why their friend got sick.
That is the story in “The Junior Disease Detectives: Operation Outbreak,” the new graphic novel the CDC has developed with the Department of Agriculture and 4-H.
Spoiler alert: it was the flu. The novel is designed to help young people understand the potential health risks of human influenza viruses that normally circulate in swine, known as variant flu infections.
Four new variant virus infections have been associated with attendance at agricultural fairs in 2 US states, the CDC reports. Most are connected to infected pigs or their environments in fair settings. While variant flu infections in people are rare, the CDC says, they can lead to hospitalization and death. In 2017, 67 variant virus infections were reported in the US; 6 resulted in hospitalization, including 2 ICU admissions.
The novel is intended for use in middle and high school science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classrooms. It is the first of a planned series of educational activities being rolled out throughout the 2018-2019 school year.
The novel is available as a free mobile app, and can be downloaded at https://www.cdc.gov/flu/resource-center/freeresources/graphic-novel/index.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fflu%2Fgraphicnovel%2Findex.html.