Q. A social and physical environment riddled with poverty, inequities, unhygienic and insanitary conditions generates the risk of infectious diseases.
Hygiene has different levels : personal, domestic and community hygiene. There is no doubt that personal cleanliness brings down the rate of infectious diseases. But the entry of the market into this domain has created a false sense of security that gets conditioned and reinforced by the onslaught of advertisements. Experience in Western Europe shows that along with personal hygiene, general improvements in environmental conditions and components like clean water, sanitation and food security have brought down infant/child death/infections rates considerably. The obsession with hand hygiene also brings in the persisting influence of the market on personal health, overriding or marginalizing the negative impact on ecology and the emergence of resistant germs.
Q 1. On the basis of the passage given above, the following assumptions have been made:
1. People who are obsessed with personal hygiene tend to ignore the community hygiene.
2. Emergence of multi-drug resistant germs can be prevented by personal cleanliness.
3. Entry of the market in the domain of hygiene increases the risk of infectious diseases.
4. Scientific and micro-level interventions are not sufficient to bring down the burden of infectious diseases.
5. It is community hygiene implemented through public health measures that is really effective in the battle against infectious diseases.
Which of the above assumptions are valid?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 and 4 only
(c) 4 and 5 only
(d) 1, 2 and 4 only
Question from UPSC Prelims 2021 CSAT Paper
Explanation :
Q1: Correct Answer – (c) (c) 4 and 5 only
Explanation – Based on the information given in the passage above, assumptions 4 and 5 are valid. The passage discusses how a social and physical environment riddled with poverty, inequities, unhygienic and insanitary conditions generates the risk of infectious diseases. It mentions that personal cleanliness can help bring down the rate of infectious diseases but that the entry of the market into this domain has created a false sense of security. The passage also discusses how experience in Western Europe shows that general improvements in environmental conditions such as clean water, sanitation and food security have brought down infant/child death/infection rates considerably.
Assumption 4 states that scientific and micro-level interventions are not sufficient to bring down the burden of infectious diseases. This is supported by the information in the passage which suggests that while personal hygiene can help reduce infection rates, it is not sufficient on its own and must be accompanied by general improvements in environmental conditions.
Assumption 5 states that it is community hygiene implemented through public health measures that is really effective in the battle against infectious diseases. This is also supported by information in the passage which discusses how general improvements in environmental conditions have been effective at reducing infection rates.
Assumptions 1, 2 and 3 are not supported by information given in the passage.
Therefore, based on this reasoning, option © 4 and 5 only would be my answer to this question.