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Communicable diseases, animal health and One Health

Infectious disease in people and animals and the surveillance that catches it: outbreaks, zoonoses, neglected tropical diseases, livestock disease, and the international rules for pandemics. Prelims has asked which disease the H1N1 virus is linked to and whether viruses spread only through vectors.

UPSC has asked

Prelims 2013: whether viruses spread only through biological vectors

No subject here changed from 16 to 31 August 2026.Show all

Lumpy skin disease: A viral disease of cattle and buffaloes that causes fever and hard nodules in the skin.

Ring vaccination: Vaccinating every susceptible animal in a ring around an outbreak, building a barrier of immunity that stops the disease spreading outward.

zoonotic: Spreading from animals to humans; a disease that does so is a zoonosis.

reservoir host: An animal population that carries a pathogen without falling ill and passes it on to people.

One Health: Treating human, animal and environmental health as one linked problem rather than three separate ones.

Incidence: New cases in a population over a set period, which allows fair comparison between places of different size.

Biological disaster: A disaster caused by living organisms or their toxins: an epidemic, a pandemic, or a deliberate release of a pathogen.

National Disaster Management Plan: The country's plan under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, setting out who does what in prevention, mitigation, response and recovery.

BSL-3: A Biosafety Level 3 laboratory, built to handle dangerous airborne pathogens.