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Monitoring & maintaining health - Communicable diseases - OCR Gateway How to prevent the spread of diseases

Health is the state of physical and mental well-being. Factors can work together to both physical and mental health. A disease is a disorder that affects an organism’s body, organs, tissues or cells.

Part of Biology (Single Science)Global challenges

How to prevent the spread of diseases

The of can be prevented or reduced in a number of ways. Important methods of doing this are shown in the table below.

Method	Example	How it works
Sterilising water	Cholera	Chemicals or UV light kill pathogens in unclean water.
Suitable hygiene - food	Salmonella	Cooking foods thoroughly and preparing them in hygienic conditions kills pathogens.
Suitable hygiene - personal	Athlete's foot	Washing surfaces with disinfectants kills pathogens. Treating existing cases of infection kills pathogens.
Vaccination	Measles	Vaccines introduce a genetically modified or weakened version of a pathogen into your body, and the immune system learns how to defend itself.
Contraception	HIV/AIDs	Using barrier contraception like condoms stops the transfer of bodily fluids and sexually transmitted diseases.
Avoid overcrowding	Powdery mildew	Keeping organisms away from one another reduces the chance of the pathogen being close enough to spread from one organism to another.

Method	Sterilising water
Example	Cholera
How it works	Chemicals or UV light kill pathogens in unclean water.

Method	Suitable hygiene - food
Example	Salmonella
How it works	Cooking foods thoroughly and preparing them in hygienic conditions kills pathogens.

Method	Suitable hygiene - personal
Example	Athlete's foot
How it works	Washing surfaces with disinfectants kills pathogens. Treating existing cases of infection kills pathogens.

Method	Vaccination
Example	Measles
How it works	Vaccines introduce a genetically modified or weakened version of a pathogen into your body, and the immune system learns how to defend itself.

Method	Contraception
Example	HIV/AIDs
How it works	Using barrier contraception like condoms stops the transfer of bodily fluids and sexually transmitted diseases.

Method	Avoid overcrowding
Example	Powdery mildew
How it works	Keeping organisms away from one another reduces the chance of the pathogen being close enough to spread from one organism to another.

Science calculations - interpreting graphs and diagrams

Fungal diseases

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