Health, Hygiene and Common Deficiency Diseases
What this domain tests
You must know what health means, what personal and environmental hygiene require, and how to identify common deficiency diseases from their signs.
Health and hygiene
WHO defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, not merely absence of disease. Personal hygiene covers bathing, oral care, handwashing with soap, nail and hair care, clean clothing and safe food handling. Environmental hygiene covers safe drinking water, sanitary latrines, drainage, garbage disposal and ventilation.
Deficiency diseases
- Protein-energy malnutrition - kwashiorkor (protein deficiency, 1–3 years, oedema, moon face, poor appetite) and marasmus (protein plus energy, under 1 year, severe wasting).
- Vitamin A - night blindness, Bitot's spots, xerophthalmia.
- Vitamin D and calcium - rickets in children, osteomalacia in adults.
- Thiamine (B1) - beriberi; riboflavin (B2) - angular stomatitis; niacin (B3) - pellagra (dermatitis, diarrhoea, dementia).
- Vitamin C - scurvy, bleeding gums.
- Iron - nutritional anaemia; iodine - goitre, cretinism.
Worked example
A 2-year-old with swollen legs, a puffy face and a diet of only diluted cereal water. Reasoning: adequate energy but very poor protein gives kwashiorkor, not marasmus (which shows extreme wasting). Action: add milk, egg, pulses, groundnut and regular protein-rich feeds.
Traps that cost marks
- Reversing kwashiorkor and marasmus.
- Mixing iron-deficiency anaemia with iodine-deficiency goitre.
- Describing health as simply 'not being ill'.