Communicable diseases, animal health and One Health

Prelims and Mains

A sandfly bite in a village in Gujarat or Rajasthan can end in brain inflammation, and it is children who are affected. What is still unsettled is how the virus actually reaches them, which is why the investigation is running through animals as well as insects.

• Chandipura virus is spread mainly by sandflies, and causes a fever that can progress to acute encephalitis syndrome, brain inflammation.
• It falls mostly on children.
• At least 22 children had died in Gujarat and Rajasthan by 6 August 2026.
• Mosquitoes, ticks and mites are being tested alongside the sandfly as vectors.
• Cattle, buffaloes and goats are being tested as reservoir hosts, so the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), ICMR and the Department of Animal Husbandry went in as one team.
• Testing animals beside people is One Health in practice, the approach that also ties crowded, antibiotic dosed livestock farming to antimicrobial resistance and to the spillover of pathogens.

Background reading: PIB, 5 Aug 2026: Chandipura virus outbreak: national response team deployed (opens in a new tab)

Prelims and Mains

Kerala's monsoon leaves standing water that rodents have been in, and a bacterium in it enters through a cut on a bare foot. It is a zoonotic infection, carried from animals rather than from other people, and what kills is usually how late it is recognised.

• Leptospirosis is caused by the bacterium Leptospira, and does not pass from person to person.
• It is picked up from water or soil contaminated by infected animals, through cuts or mucous membranes.
• Heavy monsoon rain, floods and humidity help Leptospira survive, and rodents living near homes are its reservoir.
• Farmers, cleaners and construction workers are the most exposed.
• It killed 50 people in Kerala in July 2026, which made it the State's deadliest communicable disease.
• Late diagnosis is what carries the infection on to pulmonary haemorrhage and multi-organ failure.

Prelims and Mains

A biological disaster is handled under disaster management law rather than as a health emergency alone, which puts several agencies into the same response. In August 2026 the Health Ministry set out how India prepares for one, and what it listed was the pieces already in place since before the pandemic rather than one new plan.

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is the nodal ministry for a biological disaster.
• The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) issued Guidelines on Management of Biological Disasters in 2008.
• The National Disaster Management Plan of 2019 sits alongside them.
• ICMR runs over 150 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratories and two mobile BSL-3 laboratories.
• National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams are trained for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) response.
• PM-ABHIM, the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, builds capacity against emerging diseases.