Questions from “Probe and ponder” (Page 1)
1. How does your body respond to an infection such as common cold?
Answer: When your body gets an infection like the common cold, your immune system starts to fight the germs (viruses) causing it. This fight can cause symptoms like a stuffy nose, sore throat, fever, and cough.
2. We rarely see cases of smallpox or polio these days, but diseases like diabetes and heart problems are more common. Why?
Answer: We rarely see diseases like smallpox or polio because of successful vaccination programs that protect us from them. On the other hand, diseases like diabetes and heart problems are more common now because of changes in our lifestyle. Many people eat more processed and junk food, do less exercise, and are overweight, which increases the risk of these diseases.
3. Could climate change lead to new types of diseases?
Answer: The textbook asks this question to make you think, but it does not provide a direct answer to it.
4. How do emotions like stress or worry affect us and make us sick?
Answer: Emotions like stress and worry can make us sick because our health includes our mental and social well-being, not just our physical body. The book gives an example of a student who felt lonely and stressed. This caused him to have headaches, lose weight, and have trouble sleeping, even though he didn’t have a germ-based disease. Feeling upset or lonely for a long time can harm our health.
5. Why do some groups of people get affected more than others during disease outbreaks?
Answer: People living in unclean and unhygienic places with a lot of pollution may get sick more often. Also, some people have stronger immunity, which is the body’s natural power to fight diseases. People with weaker immunity might get sick more frequently than others, even if they live in the same environment.
Questions from Activities and Text (Pages 2-14)
1. What do the news clippings on the notice board tell you about people’s health in our country? Answer: The news clippings show that India faces several health challenges. Many people are affected by lifestyle diseases like diabetes and obesity. There are also environmental health risks like air pollution. Seasonal diseases like malaria and dengue increase during the monsoon. People’s habits, such as eating fast food or spending too much time on screens, are also leading to health problems like loneliness and anxiety.
2. Think and Reflect: What was the cause of the boy’s health problems?
Answer: The main cause of the boy’s health problems was loneliness and the stress of being in a new environment with no friends.
3. Think and Reflect: How did his habits and surroundings affect his well-being?
Answer: The boy’s surroundings (a new school with no friends) made him feel lonely. To cope with this, he developed a habit of spending too much time on his phone and social media, which only made him feel worse. This habit led to physical health problems like headaches, weight loss, and poor sleep.
4. Activity 3.2: What we should do and what should not do to keep ourselves healthy? Answer: Things we SHOULD do:
- Keep ourselves and our surroundings clean.
- Eat a healthy and balanced diet with fruits and vegetables.
- Exercise regularly by playing, running, or cycling.
- Get enough sleep.
- Make time to relax or meditate.
- Spend time with family and friends.
- Say ‘NO’ to harmful things like tobacco and alcohol.
Things we SHOULD NOT do:
- Spend too much time on phones or screens.
- Eat a lot of fast food or junk food.
- Sleep very late or not get enough sleep.
- Skip meals, especially breakfast.
5. Activity 3.3: Which playground would you like to play in, and why?
Answer: I would like to play in the playground shown in Figure 3.3a. This is because it is clean and well-maintained. The other playground (Figure 3.3b) is dirty, polluted, and has flies and mosquitoes, which can spread diseases and make people sick.
6. Activity 3.4: Table of common communicable diseases. Answer: Here is a summary of the information about common communicable diseases from the table in the book.
7. Are diseases always caused by infections?
Answer: No, diseases are not always caused by infections from germs. Some diseases, like diabetes, asthma, and cancer, are called non-communicable diseases. They are usually caused by a mix of factors like an unhealthy lifestyle, diet, and the environment you live in.
8. What will happen if I take excess amount of Iodine?
Answer: The textbook explains that a lack of iodine can cause a disease called goitre, but it does not say what happens if you take an excess amount of iodine. It is important to have all nutrients in a balanced and correct amount.
9. Activity 3.5: Lifestyle-related diseases. Answer: Based on the textbook, here is information about some common lifestyle-related diseases:
10. Activity 3.6: What do you infer from the case study about the sanitation campaign in Odisha?
Answer: From the case study, we can infer that community efforts to improve sanitation, like building and using toilets, can have a big and positive impact on public health. Simple steps like these can greatly reduce the spread of communicable diseases like diarrhoea and other infections, especially among children.
11. Do you know when the first vaccine was discovered?
Answer: Yes, the first vaccine was discovered in the late 1700s by an English doctor named Edward Jenner.
12. Activity 3.7: How has antibiotic resistance developed in bacterial pathogens?
Answer: Antibiotic resistance develops when we use antibiotics too much or when they are not needed. When antibiotics are used, they kill most bacteria, but a few strong ones might survive because they have developed resistance. These resistant bacteria then multiply and spread, and can even share their resistance with other bacteria, making infections harder to treat.
13. Activity 3.7: What precautions may be taken to reduce antibiotic resistance?
Answer: To reduce antibiotic resistance, we must use antibiotics wisely. This means we should:
- Only take antibiotics when they are prescribed by a doctor.
- Take the correct dose for the correct number of days, as the doctor tells us.
- Avoid using antibiotics for infections like the common cold, which are caused by viruses.
Exercise Questions
Here are the answers to the questions at the end of the chapter.
1. Group the diseases shown in the images as communicable or non-communicable. Answer
- Communicable diseases: Cold and flu, Typhoid, Chickenpox. These can spread from one person to another.
- Non-communicable diseases: Diabetes, Asthma. These do not spread from person to person.
2. From the options given below, identify the non-communicable diseases. (i) Typhoid (ii) Asthma (iii) Diabetes (iv) Measles Answer: The correct option is (b) (ii) and (iii). Asthma and Diabetes are non-communicable diseases. Typhoid and Measles are communicable diseases.
3. There is a flu outbreak in your school.
- (i) What immediate actions should the school take to prevent further spread?Answer: The school should encourage frequent handwashing, tell students to cover their mouths and noses when they cough or sneeze, and advise sick students to stay home and rest to avoid spreading the flu to others.
- (ii) If your classmate…starts showing symptoms of the flu, how can you respond in a considerate way? Answer: You can kindly suggest to your classmate that they should tell a teacher or their parents about how they are feeling. You could say something like, “You don’t seem well. Maybe you should rest at home so you can get better soon and not spread it to others.”
- (iii) How can you protect yourself and others from getting infected?Answer: You can protect yourself by washing your hands frequently with soap, avoiding touching your face, not sharing personal items like water bottles, and wearing a mask in crowded places.
4. Your family is planning to travel to another city where malaria is prevalent.
- (i) What precautions should you take before, during, and after the trip? Answer: You should wear long-sleeved clothes, use mosquito nets when you sleep, and use mosquito repellents on your skin to prevent mosquito bites. You should also try to avoid areas with still water where mosquitoes breed.
- (ii) How can you explain the importance of mosquito nets or repellents to your sibling? Answer: You can tell them, “Mosquitoes in this area can carry a disease called malaria that makes you very sick. Using a net while sleeping and a repellent on our skin acts like a shield to stop the mosquitoes from biting us and keeping us safe and healthy.”
- (iii) What could happen if travellers ignore health advisories in such areas?Answer: If travellers ignore health advice, they could get bitten by infected mosquitoes and fall sick with malaria, which causes high fever and chills. This would ruin their trip and could be dangerous to their health.
5. Your uncle has started smoking…
- (i) What would you say to him to make him stop, without being rude?Answer: You could politely say, “I care about you and your health. The book says that things like tobacco are very harmful and can cause serious diseases. I would be very sad if something happened to you.”
- (ii) What would you do if your friend offers you a cigarette at a party?Answer: You should confidently say ‘NO’. You can say, “No, thank you. I want to stay healthy.”
- (iii) How can schools help prevent students from indulging in such harmful habits? Answer: Schools can teach students about the dangers of smoking and other harmful substances. They can run health campaigns and create a supportive environment where students feel confident to say no to peer pressure.
6. Saniya claims… “Antibiotics can cure any infection…” What question(s) can Vinita ask her to help Saniya understand that her statement is incorrect? Answer: Vinita can ask questions like:
- “Do antibiotics work against all types of germs? What about viruses that cause the flu?”
- “I read that antibiotics only work against bacteria. Is that true?”
- “What happens if people use antibiotics when they don’t need them? Could it cause any problems?”
7. The following table contains information about the number of dengue cases…
- (i) In which three months were the dengue cases highest?Answer: The dengue cases were highest in July, August, and September, with 65 cases reported in each of these months.
- (ii) In which month(s) were the cases lowest?Answer: The cases were lowest in January, with only 10 cases reported.
- (iii) What natural or environmental factors…might contribute to the increase in dengue cases?Answer: Dengue is spread by mosquitoes, which breed in still water. The peak months (July-September) are often the monsoon season in India. The rainfall can lead to puddles and collected water, which are perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes, causing the number of dengue cases to increase.
- (iv) Suggest a few preventive steps that the community…can take before the peak season. Answer: Before the peak season, the community and government can run campaigns to clean up neighbourhoods, remove garbage, and make sure there is no stagnant water where mosquitoes can breed. They can also educate people about using mosquito nets and repellents.
8. Imagine you are in charge of a school health campaign. What key messages would you use? Answer:
- To reduce communicable diseases: “Wash hands, stay healthy!”, “Cover your cough, don’t share germs!”, “Clean surroundings, healthy you!”.
- To reduce non-communicable diseases: “Eat a rainbow of fruits and veggies every day!”, “Play more, sit less!”, “A healthy lifestyle is a happy lifestyle!”.
9. Why should we not take an antibiotic for a viral infection like a cold, a cough, or flu?
Answer: We should not take antibiotics for a cold or flu because these illnesses are caused by viruses, and antibiotics do not work against viruses. Antibiotics are medicines that are designed to kill bacteria only. Using them for a viral infection is ineffective and contributes to the serious problem of antibiotic resistance.
10. Which disease(s)…may spread if drinking water gets contaminated by the excreta from an infected person?
Answer: From the list, Hepatitis A and Cholera can spread through contaminated water. (The book also mentions that the disease Poliomyelitis can spread this way).
11. When our body encounters a pathogen for the first time, the immune response is low, but on the second exposure, the response is much more. Why is it so?
Answer: This happens because our body has an immune system with a “memory”. The first time a germ (pathogen) enters, our immune system fights it and also learns how to recognize it. This is called acquired immunity. If the same germ tries to infect us again, our immune system remembers it and can launch a much faster and stronger attack to defeat it before it can make us very sick. This is the same principle behind how vaccines work.