Read the given passage and answer the following question:
The term health is very frequently used by everybody. How do we define it? Health does not simply mean ‘absence of disease’ or ‘physical fitness’. It could be defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. When people are healthy, they are more efficient at work. This increases productivity and brings economic prosperity. Health also increases the longevity of people and reduces infant and maternal mortality. When the functioning of one or more organs or systems of the body is adversely affected, characterised by appearance of various signs and symptoms, we say that we are not healthy, i.e., we have a disease. Diseases can be broadly grouped into infectious and non-infectious. A wide range of organisms belonging to bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoans, helminths, etc., could cause diseases in man. Such disease-causing organisms are called pathogens. Most parasites are therefore pathogens as they cause harm to the host by living in (or on) them. The pathogens can enter our body by various means, multiply and interfere with normal vital activities, resulting in morphological and functional damage. Pathogens have to adapt to life within the environment of the host. For example, the pathogens that enter the gut must know a way of surviving in the stomach at low pH and resisting the various digestive enzymes.
Which of the following is the mode of transmission of pneumonia?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Droplet infection
Pneumonia is a bacterial infection of the lungs. An infected person releases tiny drops of fluid (droplets or aerosols) into the air when coughing or sneezing. A healthy person breathes in these droplets and gets infected. This mode of spread is called droplet infection.
Option (1) Contamination of food — Incorrect. Contaminated food is how typhoid (Salmonella typhi) spreads. Pneumonia bacteria attack the lungs and reach them through the air.
Option (2) Droplet infection — Correct. The book states that a person catches pneumonia by inhaling the droplets/aerosols released by an infected person, or by sharing glasses and utensils with that person.
Option (3) Vectors — Incorrect. Vectors such as mosquitoes spread diseases like malaria, dengue and filariasis. Pneumonia has no vector.
Option (4) Contamination of water — Incorrect. Contaminated water spreads diseases of the gut, such as amoebiasis and typhoid. It is not the route for pneumonia.
NCERT Extract:
Common Diseases in Humans – “… The symptoms of pneumonia include fever, chills, cough and headache. In severe cases, the lips and finger nails may turn gray to bluish in colour. A healthy person acquires the infection by inhaling the droplets/aerosols released by an infected person or even by sharing glasses and utensils with an infected person.”