Biology · Human Health and Diseases · NEET
NCERT gives three broad groups. First, maintain personal and public hygiene. Second, control or eliminate the vectors (like mosquitoes) and their breeding places. Third, use vaccines and immunisation. Discovery of antibiotics and drugs also helps to treat the diseases after they occur. For NEET, remember hygiene comes first because it blocks the most common food and water-borne diseases.
Personal hygiene means keeping your own body clean and using clean drinking water, food, vegetables and fruits. Public hygiene means proper disposal of waste and excreta, periodic cleaning and disinfection of water reservoirs, pools, cesspools and tanks, and safe practices in public catering (places that serve food). NEET can ask you to sort measures into the correct group, so do not mix them.
The most important step is to control or eliminate the vectors and their breeding places. NCERT lists: avoid stagnation of water in and around homes, clean household coolers regularly, use mosquito nets, put larvivorous fishes like Gambusia in ponds to eat mosquito larvae, spray insecticides in ditches, drains and swamps, and fit wire mesh on doors and windows. This is why malaria and filariasis prevention is different from typhoid prevention.
Gambusia is a fish introduced into ponds because it feeds on mosquito larvae. By eating the larvae, it lowers the mosquito population. Fewer mosquitoes means less spread of malaria and filariasis. This is an example of biological control of a vector, and it is a favourite NEET one-liner.
Smallpox was completely eradicated by the use of vaccines and immunisation programmes. Other diseases like polio, diphtheria, pneumonia and tetanus have been controlled to a large extent by vaccines, but only smallpox is called completely eradicated in NCERT. Do not confuse 'controlled' with 'eradicated' in the exam.
For water and food-borne diseases like typhoid, amoebiasis and ascariasis, clean food and water plus proper waste disposal are enough. For air-borne diseases like pneumonia and common cold, you must add one extra step: avoid close contact with infected persons or their belongings, because the pathogen spreads through air and droplets, not water.
Try the real previous-year questions from this chapter — each with the answer and a full solution.
Personal and public hygiene, vector control (like mosquito control), and vaccination/immunisation. Memory hook: HVV. Antibiotics and drugs help treat diseases after they start.
Gambusia, a larvivorous fish, is introduced into ponds. It eats mosquito larvae and lowers the mosquito population, helping prevent malaria and filariasis.
Smallpox is completely eradicated by vaccination. This is the one disease NCERT calls fully eradicated, so watch this exact wording in NEET.
Food and water-borne diseases like typhoid, amoebiasis and ascariasis. For these, personal hygiene and proper waste disposal are the key measures.
Because pneumonia and common cold spread through air and close contact. Along with hygiene, you must avoid close contact with infected persons or their belongings.
