Why do we fall ill

Health and its failure

Health is a state of physical, mental and social well being.
The conditions necessary for good health are :-
i) Good physical and social environment.
ii) Good economic conditions.
iii) Social equality and harmony.

Differences between Healthy and Disease free

Q.1 : State any two conditions essential for good health.

Ans : (i) Better sanitation and clean surrounding.
(ii) Diet with nutritious food.

Q.2 : State any two conditions essential for being disease free.
Ans: (i) Living in hygienic environment.
(ii) Getting vaccinated against common infectious disease.

What does disease look like

When a person is affected by a disease either the normal functioning
or the appearance of one or more systems of the body changes for the
worse. These changes give rise to signs of the disease called
symptoms.
On the basis of the symptoms the physicians look for the signs of a
particular disease and conduct tests to confirm the disease.
Types of diseases :-
Diseases are of different types. They are :-
i) Acute diseases :- are diseases which last only for a short period of time
and does not have long term effect on health.
Eg:- cold, cough, typhoid, cholera etc.
ii) Chronic disease :- are diseases which lasts for a long time and has long
term drastic effect on health.
Eg :- diabetes, tuberculosis, elephantiasis, arthritis, cancer etc.
iii) Infectious diseases (Communicable diseases) :- are
diseases which spread from an infected person to a healthy person through
air, water, food, vectors, physical contact or sexual contact. Immediate
cause is external. Eg :- common cold, chicken pox, mumps, measles,
typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis, malaria, AIDS etc.

iv) Non-infectious diseases (Non-communicable diseases) :-

are diseases which are not spread from an infected person to a healthy
person. Generally an internal cause. Eg :- beri beri, rickets, scurvy, night
blindness, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure etc

Causes of diseases :-
Diseases are caused by :-
i) Pathogens like virus, bacteria, fungi, protozoans or
worms.
ii) Poor health and under nourishment.
iii) Malfunctioning of body parts.
iv) Environmental pollution.
v) Genetic disorders.

Infectious diseases
Infectious agents :-
The agents which cause infectious diseases are called pathogens. These
are Viruses, Bacteria, Fungi, Protozoans and worms.

S.No. Infectious Diseases

agents
1. Viruses Common cold, Influenza, Measles, Mumps,
Chicken pox, AIDS, Hepatits-B etc.
2. Bacteria Cholera, Typhoid, Tuberculosis, Tetanus, Anthrax,
Food poisoning etc.

3. Fungi Skin infections.

4. Protozoans Malaria, Kala-azar, Amoebic dysentry, Sleeping

sickness.
5. Worms Intestinal infections, Elephantiasis.

1. Differentiate between acute and chronic diseases.

Acute diseases.
a. __________________________________
b. __________________________________
Chronic diseases.
a. ___________________________________
b. ___________________________________

Means of spread of infectious diseases

Infectious diseases spread from an infected person to a healthy person
through air, water, food, vectors, physical contact and sexual contact.
i) Through air :- Common cold, Tuberculosis, Pneumonia
etc.
ii) Through water :- Cholera, Amoebic dysentry etc.
iii) Through vectors :-
Mosquitoes :- Malaria, Dengue, Yellow fever etc.
Flies :- Typhoid, Tuberculosis, Diarrhoea, Dysentry
etc.
iv) Through sexual contact :- Syphilis, AIDS.
AIDS virus can also spread though blood transfusion and from the
mother to her child during pregnancy and through breast feeding.

Q.3 : What are the different means by which infectious disease spread ?

Ans : Infectious diseases are generally spread through air, through

water, through sexual contact, through vectors, and through physical
contact with infected person.

Organ-specific and tissue-specific manifestations

Disease causing microbes enter the body by different means and goes to
different organs and tissues.
 i) Microbes which enters through the nose are likely to go to the lungs. (
Bacteria which cause tuberculosis of lungs).
ii) Microbes which enter through the mouth are likely to stay in the gut (
Bacteria which causes Typhoid) or liver (Bacteria which causes Jaundice).
iii) Virus which causes AIDS enter the body through sexual organs during
sexual contact and spreads through the lymph to all parts of the body and
damages the immune system.
iv) Virus which causes Japanese encephalitis (brain fever) enters the body
through mosquito bite and goes and infects the brain.

Principles of treatment

The treatment of infectious diseases consists of two steps. They are to

reduce the effects of the disease (symptoms) and to kill the microbes which
caused the disease.
i) To reduce the effects of the disease :-
This can be done by taking medicines to bring down the effects of the
disease like fever, pain or loose motions etc. and by taking bed rest to
conserve our energy.
ii) To kill the microbes :-
This can be done by taking suitable antibiotics and drugs which kills the
microbes and the disease is cured.

Principles of prevention

There are two ways of prevention of infectious diseases. They are general
ways and specific ways.
i) General ways of prevention :-
Public hygiene is most important for prevention of infectious diseases.
Proper and sufficient food for every one will make people healthy to resist
infection.
Air borne diseases can be prevented by living in conditions that are not
crowded. Water borne diseases can be prevented by providing safe drinking
water. Vector borne diseases can be prevented by providing clean
environment.
ii) Specific ways of prevention :-
The specific ways to prevent infectious disease is immunisation by taking
vaccines. Vaccines provide immunity from infectious diseases like tetanus,
diphtheria, whooping cough, measles, polio etc.
Our body has an immune system which fights microbial infection. When
this system first sees an infectious microbe, it kills the microbe and
remembers it. So if the microbe enters the body the next time, it responds
more vigorously. Vaccines mimic the infectious microbe and strengthens
our immune system and protects the body from infectious diseases.

Q.4: What precautions can you take in your school to reduce the
incidence of infectious disease ?
Ans : The following precautions can be taken in the school to reduce the
incidence of infectious disease :
(i) Providing clean drinking water regularly.
(ii) Educating students about causes of infectious disease.
Q.5 : What is immunisation ?

Ans: Immunisation is a technique in which people are given

particular vaccine so that they develop temporary or permanent
immunity against the particular infectious disease in other words,
immunisation is a specific way of preventing infections diseases.

Q.6: What are the immunisation programme available at the nearest

health centre in your locality ?

Ans: (i) For preventing polio

(ii) For preventing tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough.
(iii) For preventing tuberculosis, and measles.

Q.7: Expand the following terms.

Ans : (i) AIDS : Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome.

(ii) ORS : Oral Rehydration Solution.
(iii) BCG : Bacillus Calmette Guerin.
(iv) T.B : Tuberculosis.
(v) HIV : Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

Q.8: Why are we normally advised to take bland and nourishing food when
we are sick ?

Ans : (i) When we are sick, most of our organ systems do not function
normally.
(ii) Hence we lose appetite, do not have proper digestion of food.
(iii) Sickness also makes us weak.
Hence we are advised to take bland and nourishing food when we are sick.
Test Yourself
Q.1 : Name the chronic disease associated with respiratory system.
Ans : _____________________________________________________________________

Q.2 : Name the disease which occurs due to deficiency of vitamin C.

Ans : _____________________________________________________________________

Q.3 : Knowledge of which disease helped Dr. Edward Jenner to develop

ideas of vaccination to prevent small pox.
Ans : _____________________________________________________________________

Q.4 : Name any two disease that spread through sexual contact.
Ans : _____________________________________________________________________

Q.5 : Name the disease showing respective symptoms :

(i)Yellowness in the sclera of eyes and skin .(ii)Patient fears from water.
Ans(i) _____________________________________________________________________

(ii) _____________________________________________________________________

Q.6:When was the pulse polio immunisation programme launched in India ?

Ans: _____________________________________________________________________

Q.7:Name the diseases in which paralysis of legs occurs in some cases.

Ans: _____________________________________________________________________

Q.8 : Give two examples of bacterial disease.

Ans: _____________________________________________________________________

Q.9 :Name the causative organism and vector of malaria.

Ans_______________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

Q.10 : Give one example of protozoan disease.

Ans : _____________________________________________________________________

Q.11 : Name two animals which generally transmit rabies to humans.

Ans: _____________________________________________________________________

Q.12 : Name any two acute disease.

Ans : _____________________________________________________________________

Q.13 : Name any two chronic disease.

Ans: _____________________________________________________________________

Q.14 : State any two vectors.

Ans : _____________________________________________________________________
Q.15 : Name the plant and the drug used to treat malaria.
Ans :_____________________________________________________________________
. Define Health.
Ans. According to WHO (World Health Organisation) , It is the state of complete
physical, mental and social well being.

2. What is Disease ?
Ans. Anything which interferes with the normal functioning of the body and impairs the
health.

3. Differentiate Congenital Diseases from Acquired ones.

Ans. Congenital :
a. These occur since from birth.
b. inherited from the parents to the offspring.
Acquired :
a. It occurs during the lifetime of the person and not from the birth.
b. It does not get inherited.It occurs due to pathogens or due to deficiency of nutrients,
hormonal imbalance or due to degeneration of the tissues.

4. What is Incubation Period?

Ans. It is the period between the infection and the appearance of the first symptom.

5. Name the diseases which are caused by :

a. Bacteria : TB, Typhoid, Anthrax and Tetanus
b. Viruses : Common Cold, AIDS, Dengue fever and Mumps.
c. Fungi : Ring worm, Skin infections and Athlete's foot
d. Protozoa : Malaria, Kala Azar, Sleeping Sickness and Amoebiais

6. Important points :
a. Malaria is spread by the mosquito Anopheles
b. Mosquito Culex spread Filaria.
c. AIDS is caused by the Retrovirus HIV.
d. A dengue is the Virul disease caused by a day time biting of the mosquito called
Aedes
e. TB is caused by a bacterium Mycobacterium Tuberculosis.
f. Typhoid is caused by Salmonella Typhi.
g. Leishmania Donovani is the protozoan which causes Kala azar (black fever)
h. Helicobacter pylori is a small curved shaped bacteria which is responsible for the
peptic ulcers.

7. Which was the first Anti biotic?

Ans. Penicillin which was invented by Alaxander Flamming in 1928.

8. Name the Organs which are targeted by specific diseases :

a. Hepatitis : Liver
b. Fungal Diseases : Skin
c. Pneumonia : Lungs
d. TB : lungs
e. Diarrhoea : Intestines.
9. Which is the most common type of Plague?
Ans. Bubonic Plague.

10. Who discovered Vaccine for the first time and which one?
Ans. Edward Jenner invented the vaccine for the first time and it was of smallpox.