UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Shifting global focus towards inclusive assessment of threats to health

Q1. Consider the following statements: Which of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?

  1. India's National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance envisages that States develop and implement their own action plans for the containment of antimicrobial resistance.
  2. Under the Seventh Schedule, public health and sanitation, as well as the prevention of animal diseases, are matters in the State List.
  • A. Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II explains Statement-I
  • B. Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct, but Statement-II does not explain Statement-I
  • C. Statement-I is correct, but Statement-II is incorrect
  • D. Statement-I is incorrect, but Statement-II is correct

Q2. With reference to global health governance, consider the following statements: Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. The World Health Assembly has the power to amend the International Health Regulations (2005).
  2. The World Health Summit held in Berlin is a constitutional organ of the WHO whose resolutions guide its Member States.
  3. A Lancet Commission is an expert panel convened by the WHO Director-General to draft the organisation's global health strategies.
  • A. 2 and 3 only
  • B. 1 and 3 only
  • C. 1 and 2 only
  • D. 1 only

Q3. Consider the following statements: Which of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?

  1. The recommendations of the 2026 Lancet Commission on interlinked catastrophic threats to health do not, by themselves, create legal obligations for any country.
  2. The International Health Regulations (2005) are an instrument of international law that is legally binding on all WHO Member States.
  • A. Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II explains Statement-I
  • B. Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct, but Statement-II does not explain Statement-I
  • C. Statement-I is correct, but Statement-II is incorrect
  • D. Statement-I is incorrect, but Statement-II is correct

Q4. A 2026 Lancet Commission listed 17 interlinked catastrophic threats to global health through 2100, among them pandemics, antimicrobial resistance, obesity, air pollution, nuclear conflict and artificial intelligence. It urged leaders to stop treating these issues in isolation, while acknowledging that the past focus of global health activism on particular domains had produced many benefits. Which of the following inferences can be drawn from the above?

  1. The Commission regards threats to human health as capable of arising outside the biomedical domain.
  2. The Commission holds that disease-specific global health programmes have, on balance, been counterproductive.
  3. The Commission's framing implies that action taken on one threat may change the risks posed by others.
  4. The Commission considers infectious diseases to be no longer among the principal threats to human health.
  • A. 1, 2 and 3 only
  • B. 1, 3 and 4 only
  • C. 1 and 3 only
  • D. 2 and 4 only

Q5. With reference to biosafety levels (BSL) for laboratories, consider the following statements: Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. Biosafety levels are graded by the risk posed by the agents handled, with BSL-3 designated as 'containment' and BSL-4 as 'maximum containment'.
  2. BSL-3 is the highest containment grade, so work on agents for which no effective treatment or vaccine exists is carried out in BSL-3 facilities.
  3. Agents requiring the highest containment usually cause serious disease and can be readily transmitted from one individual to another.
  • A. 1 and 3 only
  • B. 1, 2 and 3
  • C. 2 and 3 only
  • D. 1 and 2 only

Q6. Consider the following assertion: Tracking antimicrobial resistance effectively requires surveillance across the human–animal–environment interface rather than in hospitals alone. Which of the following statements support/supports the above assertion?

  1. Misuse and overuse of antimicrobials in animals and plants, and not only in humans, drive the development of drug-resistant pathogens.
  2. The WHO Global Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance has been updated to cover the period 2026–2036.
  3. Resistant microbes and antimicrobial residues enter the environment through effluents and sewage.
  • A. 1, 2 and 3
  • B. 1 and 3 only
  • C. 1 and 2 only
  • D. 2 and 3 only

Q7. Compared with surveillance based on clinical isolates collected from hospitals, wastewater-based surveillance of antimicrobial resistance is distinctive mainly because it

  • A. yields patient-level resistance profiles that guide individual antibiotic choices
  • B. measures resistance among hospital patients but not in the wider community
  • C. captures resistance carried by people who never seek care or get tested
  • D. detects resistance only after hospitals report a rise in treatment failures