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UPPCS Biology Gap Sheet: Human Diseases: Pathogens, Vectors and Vaccines.
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First, the concept
Separate the pathogen from the route of spread. A mosquito transmits a parasite or virus; it does not cause every mosquito-borne disease itself. Vaccines train immune memory and may use weakened organisms, killed organisms, proteins or genetic instructions.
Elimination in one country is different from worldwide eradication. Elimination as a public health problem means meeting a defined threshold; surveillance and prevention must continue.
✅ Already asked (27)
Pathogen and route
- Tuberculosis · Mycobacterium tuberculosis; spreads mainly through airborne particles.
- Typhoid · Salmonella Typhi; faecal–oral spread through contaminated food or water.
- Cholera · Vibrio cholerae; contaminated water or food can cause severe watery diarrhoea.
- Tetanus · Clostridium tetani toxin causes lockjaw; not normally spread person to person.
- Botulism · Clostridium botulinum toxin can cause food-borne paralysis.
- Leprosy · Mainly Mycobacterium leprae; affects skin and peripheral nerves.
- HIV/AIDS · HIV is a retrovirus affecting CD4 cells; spread includes sexual, blood and vertical routes.
- Hepatitis A versus B · A commonly spreads faecal–orally; B through blood, sexual contact and birth.
- Rabies · Virus transmitted mainly by infected mammal saliva; hydrophobia is a classic symptom.
- Prion disease · Misfolded infectious protein causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
- Ringworm · Dermatophyte fungi cause skin infection; no worm is involved.
Vectors and reservoirs
- Malaria · Plasmodium protozoa; transmitted by infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.
- Dengue and chikungunya · Viral diseases spread mainly by Aedes mosquitoes.
- Japanese encephalitis · Virus transmitted by Culex mosquitoes; pigs are important amplifying hosts.
- Kala-azar · Leishmania donovani complex; female sandflies transmit visceral leishmaniasis.
- Lymphatic filariasis · Filarial worms; Culex is a major vector of Wuchereria bancrofti in India.
- Sleeping sickness · Trypanosoma brucei; transmitted by tsetse flies.
- Plague · Yersinia pestis; flea bites are a major route, not mosquito bites.
Vaccine platforms and coverage
- Salk and Sabin polio vaccines · Salk IPV is inactivated and injected; Sabin OPV is live attenuated and oral.
- BCG vaccine · Live attenuated Mycobacterium bovis; protects young children against severe TB forms.
- DPT and toxoids · Diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus; diphtheria and tetanus components are toxoids.
- Hepatitis B vaccine · Recombinant surface-antigen vaccine; birth dose helps prevent perinatal infection.
- Rotavirus vaccine · Oral live vaccines help prevent severe rotavirus diarrhoea in infants.
- COVID vaccine platforms · mRNA vaccines deliver instructions; Sinovac is inactivated whole-virus, not mRNA.
Elimination milestones
- India's polio-free certification · Region certified in March 2014; India's last wild-poliovirus case was in January 2011.
- Leprosy elimination threshold · India reached national prevalence below 1 per 10,000 in 2005; transmission and new cases did not become zero.
- Smallpox eradication · Global eradication declared in 1980; unlike regional disease elimination.
❌ Not asked yet (3)
🔒 3 items not asked yet
Vaccine platforms and coverage: 2 · Elimination milestones: 1
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⚠️ India being polio-free does not mean polio is globally eradicated. A vaccine prevents disease; it is not a general cure for an existing infection.
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