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Human Health and Disease for NEET UG

This chapter is about what makes us ill and how the body defends itself: common infectious diseases, the immune system, vaccines, AIDS, cancer and drug abuse.

BiologyClass 1295 MCQs3 lessons14 flashcards4 memory tricks

Practise Human Health and Disease free

What you'll learn

  1. Common infectious diseases
    Match diseases to their pathogens, spread and symptoms, including the malaria life cycle.
  2. Immunity and vaccines
    Compare innate and acquired immunity, antibody types and active vs passive immunity.
  3. AIDS, cancer and drug abuse
    Explain how HIV damages immunity, how cancer starts, and the effects of drugs and alcohol.

Memory tricks

Innate versus acquired immunityInnate immunity is the society guard at the gate; acquired immunity is the police who remember faces.

Innate: skin, mucus, phagocytes, fever. Acquired: B and T lymphocytes with memory, so the second response is faster and stronger.

Active versus passive immunityActive: you make your own antibodies. Passive: ready-made antibodies, like the colostrum in mother's first milk.

Vaccines give active immunity. Colostrum (IgA), anti-venom and antibodies crossing the placenta give quick but short-lived passive immunity.

Malaria parasite's two homesPlasmodium leads a double life: romance in the mosquito, multiplication in you.

Sexual stages occur in the female Anopheles (the definitive host); asexual stages occur in human liver cells and RBCs. The fever comes when RBCs burst and release haemozoin.

Benign versus malignantA benign tumour stays at home; a malignant one travels.

Malignant tumours invade nearby tissue and spread through blood and lymph (metastasis). Benign tumours stay in place.

Try 3 NEET-style questions

Q1. Symptoms of amoebiasis (amoebic dysentery) include

  1. high fever with chills recurring every three to four days
  2. constipation, abdominal pain and cramps, and stools with excess mucus and blood clots
  3. chronic swelling of the legs
  4. dry, scaly lesions on the skin
Show answer

Answer: (2) constipation, abdominal pain and cramps, and stools with excess mucus and blood clots

Entamoeba histolytica lives in the large intestine and causes constipation, abdominal pain and cramps, and stools with excess mucus and blood clots.

Q2. Antibodies in the blood are produced by

  1. T-lymphocytes
  2. neutrophils
  3. mast cells
  4. B-lymphocytes
Show answer

Answer: (4) B-lymphocytes

B-lymphocytes produce antibodies (humoral immune response). T-lymphocytes help B cells and mediate cell-mediated immunity.

Q3. An example of an auto-immune disease is

  1. AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency)
  2. malaria (a protozoan disease)
  3. rheumatoid arthritis
  4. typhoid (a bacterial fever)
Show answer

Answer: (3) rheumatoid arthritis

In auto-immune diseases the body attacks self-cells; rheumatoid arthritis is an example.

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More Biology chapters (Class 12)

Sexual Reproduction in Flowering Plants · Human Reproduction · Reproductive Health · Principles of Inheritance and Variation · Molecular Basis of Inheritance · Evolution · Microbes in Human Welfare · Biotechnology: Principles and Processes · Biotechnology and its Applications · Organisms and Populations · Ecosystem · Biodiversity and Conservation