Common Health Problems and Programmes Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The correct matching is live vaccine with BCG (ii), killed vaccine with pertussis (i), inactivated vaccine with rabies (iv) and toxoid with diphtheria (iii), so the code is (ii) (i) (iv) (iii).

BCG is a live attenuated bacterial vaccine; the whole-cell pertussis vaccine is a killed bacterial vaccine; the rabies vaccine is inactivated virus; diphtheria vaccine is a toxoid. The other codes give the live vaccine to rabies, or the killed vaccine to diphtheria, and so fail.

Answer: D

Measles vaccine is given subcutaneously (ii), BCG intradermally (iii), DPT intramuscularly (iv) and OPV orally (i), so the code is (ii) (iii) (iv) (i).

Option A gives measles the intradermal route and BCG the subcutaneous, which swaps them. Option B puts BCG in the intramuscular route. Option C gives measles the oral route. BCG is injected into the skin, which is why it forms the typical scar. Giving the measles vaccine under the skin and the DPT vaccine into the muscle is also the schedule shown in the national immunization programme.

Answer: B

AIDS is controlled by use of condoms (iii), yaws by chemotherapy (ii), typhoid fever by sanitation (iv) and tetanus by immunization (i), so the code is (iii) (ii) (iv) (i).

Option A gives AIDS immunization, though no vaccine existed. Option C gives AIDS chemotherapy as its control. Option D swaps yaws and typhoid, assigning sanitation to yaws and chemotherapy to typhoid, which misses that penicillin treats yaws. Typhoid is a faecal-oral disease, so sanitation and safe water are its control, while tetanus is prevented by toxoid immunization of mothers and children.

Answer: B

Stagnant water breeds Culex (ii), clear running water Anopheles (i), water in cans Aedes (iv) and water weeds Mansonia (iii), so the code is (ii) (i) (iv) (iii).

Option A gives stagnant water to Anopheles. Option C swaps Mansonia and Aedes, though Mansonia larvae attach to the roots of aquatic plants such as water weeds. Option D gives clear running water to Mansonia.

Answer: A

The keyed matching is cholera with tetracycline (ii), bacterial conjunctivitis with erythromycin (iii), meningococcal meningitis with sulphadiazine (iv) and influenza with amantadine (i), so the code is (ii) (iii) (iv) (i).

Amantadine is an antiviral and so fits influenza only, ruling out options B and C, which give it to cholera. Option D gives cholera tetracycline but then gives conjunctivitis sulphadiazine and influenza erythromycin, which mixes up the antibacterials with the one antiviral. Erythromycin is the antibiotic keyed for eye infection, and sulphadiazine is the classic chemoprophylaxis for meningococcal contacts.

Answer: B

Both statements are true but the reason does not explain the assertion. Adolescents are less vulnerable to disease than the very young and the old, and little prominence is given to health problems specific to their age.

Option A is wrong: the lack of attention to adolescent health does not make adolescents less vulnerable, since vulnerability is a matter of biology and immunity. Option C and D are wrong because both statements are true. Adolescence is a period of growth with specific problems such as nutrition, anaemia and mental health that services often ignore.

Answer: B

Both statements are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A). Triage means rapidly classifying the injured by severity and chance of survival with prompt care, and it should be adapted to locally available skills.

The need to match triage to local skills is a condition for its use, but it does not explain what triage is. Option A is wrong for that reason, and options C and D are wrong because neither statement is false.

Answer: A

The key takes both statements as true, with the reason explaining the assertion.

The tuberculin test shows whether a person has been infected with the tubercle bacillus, and community surveys of the prevalence of tuberculous infection are done with it. Once a person has become tuberculin positive he generally stays positive, so the positive results added up in a survey measure the infection that has accumulated in the community.

The key accepts this as the explanation. The options that call (R) not the explanation or call either statement false are not the key.

Answer: B

Both statements are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

Annual parasite incidence, the number of confirmed malaria cases per 1,000 population in a year, is used to plan and assess anti-malaria operations, so (A) is true. The surveillance rule that a given proportion of the population should have blood slides examined each month is also a true statement of programme practice.

But (R) is about the volume of slide examination that is needed for surveillance. It does not say why API is used in planning, so it does not explain (A). That makes the second option the key.

Answer: B

Both statements are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

Leptospirosis is caused by spirochaetes of the genus Leptospira (the booklet spells it spiroches), so (A) is true. Vaccination is considered for occupational groups such as sewage workers, slaughter-house workers and dairy workers, who are exposed to the animal urine that carries the organism, so (R) is also true.

The cause of the disease and the vaccine policy for risk groups are two separate facts, and the second does not explain the first, so (R) is not the explanation of (A). The first option is therefore wrong.