Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled as Reason (R).
Assertion (A): Antibiotics have greatly improved our capacity to treat deadly diseases such as plague, whooping cough and diphtheria.
Reason (R): Penicillin was extensively used to treat American soldiers wounded in World War II.
In the light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).
Assertion (A): Antibiotics have greatly improved our capacity to treat deadly diseases such as plague, whooping cough and diphtheria. — True. NCERT names plague, whooping cough, diphtheria and leprosy as deadly diseases that used to kill millions and can now be treated with antibiotics.
Reason (R): Penicillin was extensively used to treat American soldiers wounded in World War II. — True. After Chain and Florey established its full potential, Penicillin was used on a large scale to treat wounded soldiers in World War II.
A is about the general power of antibiotics to treat several deadly diseases. R is about one antibiotic, Penicillin, being used on wounded soldiers in one war.
Why R does not explain A? R is only one example of an antibiotic being used; it is a historical fact about its use, not the cause of the improvement. Our capacity to treat plague, whooping cough and diphtheria improved because antibiotics kill or retard the growth of the disease-causing microbes, and because many antibiotics were later purified from other microbes. R says nothing about these diseases or about how antibiotics act. So both statements are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A.
NCERT Extract:
Antibiotics – “… However, its full potential as an effective antibiotic was established much later by Ernest Chain and Howard Florey. This antibiotic was extensively used to treat American soldiers wounded in World War II. Fleming, Chain and Florey were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945, for this discovery. After Penicillin, other antibiotics were also purified from other microbes. … Antibiotics have greatly improved our capacity to treat deadly diseases such as plague, whooping cough (kali khansi), diphtheria (gal ghotu) and leprosy (kusht rog), which used to kill millions all over the globe.”