---
title: "Health, Disease & One Health for UPSC GS-3 | Model Diplomat"
description: "Connect health, disease surveillance, and the One Health approach to UPSC GS-3 current affairs, mapping ICMR, NCDC, zoonoses, and pandemic governance to"
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/upsc-science-technology-health-disease-one-health-in-current-affairs"
---

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Health, disease & one-health in current affairs

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# Health, disease & one-health in current affairs

Health, disease surveillance and the One Health approach for UPSC GS-3, mapping ICMR, NCDC, zoonoses and pandemic governance onto current affairs.

## Where this sits in the UPSC scheme

Health and disease occupy a permanent place in **GS Paper III** ('Science and Technology — developments and applications and effects in everyday life') and **GS Paper II** (governance, health as a development sector, international institutions). In Prelims, the topic surfaces as factual questions on pathogens, vaccine platforms, government programmes and global health bodies. The COVID-19 pandemic made this a guaranteed theme: UPSC has repeatedly tested mRNA technology, gene sequencing, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the institutional architecture of disease surveillance.

## How it is tested

**Prelims (factual recall):** Expect statement-matching on diseases and vectors (e.g. *Nipah* — fruit bats; *Kyasanur Forest Disease* — ticks; *Zika* — *Aedes aegypti*), on vaccine platforms (mRNA, viral-vector, subunit, inactivated), and on bodies such as ICMR, NCDC, GAVI and the WHO. A 2021 Prelims question probed monoclonal antibodies; questions on gene-editing and CRISPR recur.

**Mains (analytical):** GS-3 questions ask you to *evaluate India's pandemic preparedness*, *analyse the One Health framework*, or *discuss antimicrobial resistance as a security threat*. The 2020 paper asked about COVID-19's impact; examiners reward candidates who connect a scientific mechanism to a governance prescription.

## The high-yield spine to retain

1. **One Health** — the WHO/FAO/WOAH/UNEP Quadripartite definition (2021): an integrated approach recognising that human, animal, plant and environmental health are interdependent. Roughly **75% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic**.
2. **India's institutions** — the **Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR, 1911)**, the **National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)** running the **Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP, 2004)**, and the **National One Health Mission** approved by the Cabinet in 2023.
3. **Legal backbone** — the colonial **Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897** (invoked nationwide in March 2020), the **Disaster Management Act, 2005** (the actual legal vehicle for the 2020 lockdown), and the proposed **Public Health (Prevention, Control and Management of Epidemics) Bill** intended to replace the 1897 Act.
4. **Global governance** — the **International Health Regulations (2005)**, amended in 2024, and the **WHO Pandemic Agreement** adopted by the World Health Assembly in **May 2025**.

Memorise three dated instances you can deploy as evidence: the **2018 and 2023 Nipah outbreaks in Kerala**, the **COVID-19 declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020**, and the **mpox PHEIC of 14 August 2024**. These let you anchor abstract arguments in concrete, datable fact — exactly what raises a Mains answer from average to distinction.

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