Section 16 — NEET-Pattern Practice Questions (Human Health and Disease)
Human Health and Disease is a high-yield, high-reliability NEET chapter — you can expect 3 to 5 questions from it almost every year, and they are usually gettable if your facts are tight. The questions sweep across the whole chapter: the pathogen-disease-symptom links (typhoid, pneumonia, common cold, malaria, amoebiasis, ascariasis, filariasis, ringworm), innate vs acquired immunity, antibody structure, active vs passive immunity, lymphoid organs, allergy and autoimmunity, AIDS, cancer, and drugs and alcohol abuse.
This section is a focused 28-question NEET-pattern practice quiz covering the entire chapter — mostly matching-and-recall (which pathogen causes what, which vector, which cell type) with a few concept traps (innate vs acquired, active vs passive, benign vs malignant).
Important note: These are NEET-pattern practice questions built on the recurring core concepts of this chapter. Do not treat them as exact authenticated year-tagged NEET PYQs unless each one is separately matched against an official NEET paper and year.
How to use: Treat this like a timed mock — give yourself about 25 minutes for all 28 questions. Attempt first, then read each explanation carefully. Use the Mini Memory Capsule below to spot the recurring question patterns before you begin.
Mini Memory Capsule — NEET's Top Hooks for This Chapter
Most NEET questions on Human Health and Disease fall into these recurring patterns:
1. Pathogen-disease-vector tables — Salmonella typhi (typhoid, Widal test), Streptococcus pneumoniae / Haemophilus influenzae (pneumonia), Rhino virus (common cold), Plasmodium (malaria, female Anopheles vector, haemozoin), Entamoeba histolytica (amoebiasis, housefly carrier), Ascaris (ascariasis), Wuchereria (filariasis/elephantiasis), Microsporum/Trichophyton/Epidermophyton (ringworm). P. falciparum = malignant malaria.
2. Innate immunity barriers — physical (skin, mucus), physiological (acid, saliva, tears), cellular (PMNL-neutrophils, monocytes, NK cells, macrophages), cytokine (interferons).
3. Antibody & responses — antibody = H2L2 (2 heavy + 2 light chains); B-cells → antibodies (humoral); T-cells → cell-mediated immunity and graft rejection; classes IgA, IgM, IgE, IgG.
4. Active vs passive immunity — active = body makes its own antibodies (slow, has memory); passive = ready-made antibodies given (colostrum IgA, antivenom, placental transfer).
5. Lymphoid organs — primary = bone marrow + thymus; secondary = spleen, lymph nodes, tonsils, Peyer's patches, appendix; MALT ≈ 50% of lymphoid tissue.
6. Allergy & autoimmunity — allergy → IgE, histamine + serotonin from mast cells; autoimmune example = rheumatoid arthritis.
7. AIDS — HIV = retrovirus with RNA genome; uses reverse transcriptase; attacks helper T-lymphocytes (progressive fall); diagnosis by ELISA; first reported 1981.
8. Cancer — loss of contact inhibition; benign (localised) vs malignant (invasive, metastasis); carcinogens (X-rays, UV, tobacco); proto-oncogenes / cellular oncogenes; detection by biopsy, CT, MRI.
9. Drugs & alcohol — opioids (heroin = diacetylmorphine, from Papaver somniferum), cannabinoids (from Cannabis sativa → marijuana, hashish, charas, ganja), cocaine (from Erythroxylum coca, blocks dopamine transport), nicotine (tobacco).