3.7 Going Deeper: Enrichment & Exam Preparation

Health in Everyday Life

A Healthy Day You wake after enough sleep, eat a balanced breakfast, walk or cycle to school (exercise), wash your hands before lunch (hygiene), play outdoors with friends (social and physical health), and limit late-night screens. None of this is dramatic — yet together these ordinary choices are the single biggest thing protecting you from both infectious and lifestyle diseases.

Quick Reference

Term Meaning
Health (WHO) Complete physical, mental & social well-being
Symptom What you feel (pain, tiredness)
Sign What is seen/measured (fever, rash)
Pathogen A disease-causing germ (bacteria, virus, fungus, protozoa, worm)
Vector An insect that carries a pathogen (mosquito, housefly)
Communicable Spreads between people (caused by pathogens)
Non-communicable Doesn’t spread; lifestyle/diet/environment
Immunity Body’s natural ability to fight disease
Vaccine Trains the immune system; preventive
Antibiotic Kills bacteria; useless against viruses
Spread route Example diseases
Air Cold, influenza, chickenpox, measles, TB
Water/food Cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A, ascariasis
Insect vector Malaria, dengue

Memory Tricks & One-Page Revision

Revision Card

  • Health = Body + Mind + Social (the three WHO dimensions).
  • Symptom = felt; Sign = seen/measured.
  • Communicable = caused by a pathogen and spreads; Non-communicable = lifestyle, doesn’t spread.
  • Vaccine = prevent (before); Antibiotic = treat bacteria (after).
  • Antibiotics ≠ viruses. They never cure a cold or flu.
  • Resistance grows from misuse — wrong use or incomplete dose.
  • Vectors (mosquito, housefly) carry malaria, dengue and more.
  • Fleming → penicillin (1928), the first antibiotic.

Spot the Mistake

Find the Flaw

  1. “Diabetes is contagious — you can catch it from a friend.” — Wrong: diabetes is non-communicable; it does not spread between people.
  2. “A vaccine will cure my fever today.” — Wrong: vaccines are preventive, not curative; they work before you fall ill.
  3. “Antibiotics cure any infection.” — Wrong: antibiotics kill bacteria only, not viruses or protozoa.

Test Your Reflexes

A quick-fire drill: an illness or its cause appears. Decide whether an antibiotic would help (bacterial) or would NOT help (viral, protozoan, or non-communicable). Build a streak!

Will an antibiotic help?
Antibiotics work only on bacteria. Decide for each case.
Score 0 · Streak 0

Exam Corner: CBSE-Style Practice

Mixed Practice (objective, short, long, HOTS)

Objective type (1 mark each)

  1. According to WHO, health is complete ______, ______ and ______ well-being.
  2. Insects that carry pathogens, such as mosquitoes, are called ______.
  3. Antibiotics are effective against ______ (bacteria / viruses / both).

Short answer (2 marks each)

  1. Distinguish between a symptom and a sign, with one example each.
  2. Why is a vaccine described as preventive but not curative?

Long answer (3 marks each)

  1. Classify these as communicable or non-communicable and give the route/cause: typhoid, diabetes, malaria, asthma.
  2. Explain how antibiotic resistance develops and list three steps to reduce it.

HOTS (Higher Order Thinking)

  1. Saniya says, “Antibiotics can cure any infection, so we needn’t worry about disease.” Write two questions Vinita could ask to show this is wrong.
  2. A flu outbreak hits your school. Suggest two immediate steps the school should take and two ways you can protect yourself and others.

Assertion–Reason (Choose: (a) both true, R explains A; (b) both true, R doesn’t explain A; (c) A true, R false; (d) A false, R true.)

  1. Assertion (A): A person can be free of disease yet still not be healthy.   Reason (R): Health includes mental and social well-being, not just the absence of disease.
  1. physical, mental, social.
  2. vectors.
  3. bacteria only.
  4. A symptom is what the patient feels (e.g. pain); a sign is what can be seen or measured (e.g. fever).
  5. A vaccine trains the immune system in advance so disease is prevented; it does nothing for an illness already present, so it cannot cure — only prevent.
  6. Typhoid — communicable (bacteria, contaminated water/food); Malaria — communicable (protozoa, mosquito vector); Diabetes — non-communicable (lifestyle); Asthma — non-communicable (lifestyle/environment).
  7. Resistance develops when antibiotics are used unnecessarily or in incomplete doses, letting a few resistant bacteria survive, multiply and pass on resistance. To reduce it: take antibiotics only when prescribed, in the correct dose, for the full course; don’t demand them for viral illness; don’t misuse them in animals.
  8. Possible questions: “Do antibiotics work against viral diseases like the common cold?” and “What happens if we take antibiotics when they’re not needed?” (Both expose that antibiotics only treat bacterial infections and that misuse causes resistance.)
  9. Immediate steps: send symptomatic students home to rest; promote hand-washing, masks and covering coughs; improve ventilation. To protect yourself/others: wash hands, wear a mask, don’t share items, stay home if you feel unwell.
  10. (a) — Both true and R explains A: because health includes mental and social well-being, someone disease-free can still be unhealthy (e.g. lonely or anxious).

Glossary

Key Terms

  • Health: complete physical, mental and social well-being.
  • Symptom / sign: what is felt vs what is seen or measured.
  • Disease: a condition disturbing the normal working of body or mind.
  • Pathogen: a disease-causing germ (bacteria, virus, fungus, protozoa, worm).
  • Vector: an insect that carries a pathogen from host to host.
  • Communicable / non-communicable disease: spreads between people vs does not.
  • Deficiency disease: caused by lack of a nutrient (e.g. scurvy, anaemia, goitre).
  • Immunity / immune system: the body’s ability and machinery to fight disease.
  • Vaccine / acquired immunity: trains the immune system to protect in advance.
  • Antibiotic: a medicine that kills bacteria (not viruses).
  • Antibiotic resistance: bacteria surviving an antibiotic that once killed them.