Communicable Diseases and Health Programmes

Prerequisites

• Cell and Human Body Systems — blood, lungs and liver, which these diseases attack.
• Nutrition and Deficiency Diseases — the non-infectious diseases and the infection–malnutrition cycle.

The Hook: A Fever in Bijapur

Why it matters: Prelims asks “disease–pathogen–vector” matches and “which disease has India eliminated?” statements. Mains GS-II asks about public health programmes, communicable vs non-communicable diseases and the health problems of tribal Chhattisgarh.

Pathogens (रोगजनक) and Routes of Spread

Diseases by type of pathogen

Vector-Borne Diseases (वाहक-जनित रोग)

Malaria (मलेरिया) in detail

• Caused by the protozoan Plasmodium. The two main species in India are P. vivax and P. falciparum. P. falciparum causes the most severe form (cerebral malaria) and dominates in forested tribal belts such as Bastar and neighbouring Odisha.
• The parasite in human blood was first seen by Charles Laveran (1880). Ronald Ross showed in 1897 at Secunderabad that mosquitoes transmit it, and won the Nobel Prize in 1902.
• The parasite multiplies in the liver and then in red blood cells, which burst in cycles: hence the fever with chills, and anaemia.
• Diagnosis: blood smear or rapid diagnostic test (RDT). Treatment: chloroquine for vivax (with primaquine), artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) for falciparum. Artemisinin was discovered by Tu Youyou (Nobel Prize, 2015).
• National Framework for Malaria Elimination (2016–2030): zero indigenous cases by 2027 and elimination by 2030. India has left the WHO “High Burden to High Impact” group of countries.

Major Communicable Diseases: Key Facts

Elimination Status (as of 2026)

Eradication means zero cases worldwide permanently (only smallpox, declared in 1980, among human diseases). Elimination means interrupting transmission, or reducing cases below a set threshold, in a country or region.

timeline
    title India's disease milestones
    2000 : Guinea worm (dracunculiasis) - certified free
    2005 : Leprosy - eliminated as a public health problem (national level)
    2014 : Polio - WHO certifies the South-East Asia Region, including India, polio-free (27 March)
    2015 : Maternal and neonatal tetanus - elimination validated
    2016 : Yaws - India declared yaws-free (May)
    2023 : Kala-azar - elimination threshold reached in all endemic blocks
    2024 : Trachoma - WHO validates elimination as a public health problem (October)

Sickle Cell Disease (सिकल सेल रोग): Chhattisgarh’s Genetic Challenge

• A genetic, non-communicable blood disorder caused by a mutation in the haemoglobin (beta-globin) gene. Red blood cells become sickle (crescent) shaped, stiff and short-lived, causing anaemia, pain crises, infections and organ damage.
• It is autosomal recessive: a person with one faulty gene is a carrier (sickle cell trait, usually healthy); a child who inherits the faulty gene from both carrier parents has the disease.
• The carrier state gives some protection against falciparum malaria, which is why the gene became common in historically malarial regions, including India’s central tribal belt.
• Chhattisgarh is among the states with the highest burden, along with Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Thalassaemia is another inherited haemoglobin disorder; major forms need lifelong transfusions. A bone marrow (stem cell) transplant can cure both conditions, and gene therapies are emerging. See Biotechnology.

Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs, गैर-संचारी रोग)

Risk factors: tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy diet (salt, sugar, trans-fat), physical inactivity, air pollution. NCDs now cause the majority of deaths in India.

Programme: the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD), earlier NPCDCS (2010), runs population-based screening of people aged 30 and above for hypertension, diabetes and oral, breast and cervical cancers at Ayushman Arogya Mandirs.

India’s Health System and Programmes

Chhattisgarh:

• The Mitanin programme (मितानिन, “friend”) started in 2002, before NRHM, and was a model for the national ASHA scheme.
• Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Ayushman Swasthya Yojana (the state’s name for its health-assurance scheme since June 2024) runs in convergence with PM-JAY: up to ₹5 lakh a year for Antyodaya and priority ration-card families and a smaller cover (₹50,000) for other families, as of 2026.
• Mukhyamantri Haat Bazaar Clinic Yojana (launched 2 October 2019) took mobile clinics to weekly tribal markets (haats), where remote villagers gather.

See Welfare and Development Programmes and Economy, Budget and State Schemes of Chhattisgarh for the wider scheme map.

Analysis for Mains: Health Challenges in Tribal Chhattisgarh

1. Disease burden: falciparum malaria, sickle cell disease, TB, malnutrition and anaemia overlap in the same districts.
2. Access: forests, scattered hamlets, poor roads and conflict in parts of the south make facilities hard to reach and staff hard to retain.
3. Human resources: shortages of specialists at community health centres and district hospitals.
4. Social factors: reliance on traditional healers, late care-seeking, low female literacy.
5. What has worked: community health workers (mitanins), test-everyone campaigns (Malaria Mukt Bastar), outreach at weekly haats, sickle cell screening and genetic counselling.

Way forward: strengthen Ayushman Arogya Mandirs and telemedicine; incentives for doctors in remote postings; integrate malaria, TB, nutrition and sickle cell services; use local-language communication through mitanins and traditional leaders; better roads and connectivity.

Memory Tricks

Don’t Confuse

Common Mistakes

Practice

All questions below are original practice questions written in CGPSC style. They are not previous-year questions.

Level 1: Foundation

1. Kala-azar is transmitted by the ______.
2. The causative agent of tuberculosis is ______.
3. Chhattisgarh’s community health workers, the model for ASHAs, are called ______.

Level 2: Prelims MCQs

Q1. Consider the following statements about India’s disease-control status (as of 2026):

1. India was declared yaws-free in 2016.
2. WHO has validated India’s elimination of kala-azar as a public health problem.
3. WHO validated India’s elimination of trachoma as a public health problem in 2024.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

• (a) 1 only
• (b) 1 and 3 only
• (c) 2 and 3 only
• (d) 1, 2 and 3

Q2. Match List I (Disease) with List II (Vector):

• (a) A-4, B-1, C-3, D-2
• (b) A-4, B-3, C-1, D-2
• (c) A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2
• (d) A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1

Q3. Which of the following diseases is caused by a protozoan?

• (a) Typhoid
• (b) Amoebic dysentery
• (c) Hepatitis A
• (d) Ringworm

Q4. With reference to the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission, which of the following is correct?

• (a) It was launched in 2023 and aims to eliminate the disease as a public health problem by 2047.
• (b) It was launched in 2019 and aims at elimination by 2030.
• (c) It covers only Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
• (d) It relies mainly on mass drug administration.

Q5. The “Malaria Mukt Bastar Abhiyan” was distinctive because it:

• (a) distributed a malaria vaccine to all children
• (b) tested everyone in target villages, including people without fever
• (c) relied only on spraying DDT
• (d) was run entirely by private hospitals

Level 3: Mains Answer Writing

Q1. (60 words) Distinguish between disease elimination and eradication with Indian examples.

Q2. (150–200 words) “Tribal Chhattisgarh faces a triple burden of malaria, sickle cell disease and malnutrition.” Discuss, with the measures taken.

Quick Revision Table

Key Takeaways

What’s Next

• Vaccines and Immunity — how the body fights these pathogens and how vaccines help
• Biotechnology — diagnostics, gene therapy and vaccine technology
• Tribes of Chhattisgarh — the communities most affected by the diseases above
• Environmental Pollution and Waste Management — water, sanitation and disease