UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Why does Kerala report a high leptospirosis burden?
Q1. Of the following animals — rodents, dogs, horses, cattle, insectivores and swine — how many are identified by the World Health Organization as the main reservoirs of pathogenic Leptospira, as distinct from animals merely listed as possible sources of human infection?
- A. Three of the six animals named above
- B. Four of the six animals named above
- C. Five of the six animals named above
- D. All six of the animals named above
Q2. In the epidemiology of leptospirosis, the expression 'reservoir host' is best described as which one of the following?
- A. An animal that develops severe, rapidly fatal disease, with the bacteria spreading mainly from its carcass into surrounding soil and water
- B. A person recovering from the infection who continues to pass the bacteria to other people through saliva and other body fluids for several months
- C. An animal in which the bacteria multiply in the liver and are shed chiefly in dung, contaminating farmland during the monsoon months
- D. An animal, usually mildly or sub-clinically infected, that maintains the bacteria in its renal tubules and sheds them in urine, potentially for life
Q3. Laboratory support and field surveillance for the northern Kerala districts worst hit by the 2012–13 leptospirosis epidemic are backed by an outstation branch functioning at Kozhikode. That branch belongs to which one of the following organisations?
- A. The National Institute of Virology, functioning under the Indian Council of Medical Research
- B. The Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, the health intelligence wing of the Union Health Ministry
- C. The National Centre for Disease Control, under the Directorate General of Health Services
- D. The National Institute of Epidemiology, an institute of the Indian Council of Medical Research
Q4. Leptospirosis, considered rare in Kerala in the early 1980s, began to be reported in the State from which one of the following years?
- A. 1963
- B. 1989
- C. 2001
- D. 2012
Q5. The Programme for Prevention and Control of Leptospirosis (PPCL) is managed at the central level by which one of the following?
- A. The National Health Authority, the implementing body under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
- B. The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying
- C. The Indian Council of Medical Research, functioning under the Department of Health Research
- D. The National Centre for Disease Control, under the Directorate General of Health Services
Q6. Two differing datasets are cited for Kerala's 2024 leptospirosis outbreak. Consider the following statements about how they compare:
1. The dataset covering 1 January to 4 October 2024 records 2,512 diagnosed cases.
2. In the alternate dataset for 2024, the number of suspected deaths exceeds the number of confirmed deaths.
3. The alternate dataset places suspected cases for 2024 at 1,565, described as the highest ever recorded.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- The dataset covering 1 January to 4 October 2024 records 2,512 diagnosed cases.
- In the alternate dataset for 2024, the number of suspected deaths exceeds the number of confirmed deaths.
- The alternate dataset places suspected cases for 2024 at 1,565, described as the highest ever recorded.
- A. 1 only
- B. 1 and 3 only
- C. 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q7. For the period 1 January to 4 October 2024, how many confirmed leptospirosis deaths were recorded in Kerala?
Q8. The recent surge that revived national attention on Kerala's leptospirosis burden — 50 deaths in a single month — belongs to which one of the following months?
- A. June 2026
- B. July 2026
- C. October 2024
- D. August 2026
Q9. Consider the following statements regarding Kerala's leptospirosis situation in 2026 as compared with the rest of India:
1. Kerala's reported burden is exclusively a product of its own climate, since no other Indian State reports endemic transmission of the disease.
2. In late June 2026, Kerala reported 2 deaths and 9 fresh cases, a far smaller toll than the 50 deaths recorded in the following month.
3. Kerala's high case count is read by its Health Department as partly an artefact of better surveillance rather than as proof of the highest true incidence in the country.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- Kerala's reported burden is exclusively a product of its own climate, since no other Indian State reports endemic transmission of the disease.
- In late June 2026, Kerala reported 2 deaths and 9 fresh cases, a far smaller toll than the 50 deaths recorded in the following month.
- Kerala's high case count is read by its Health Department as partly an artefact of better surveillance rather than as proof of the highest true incidence in the country.
- A. 1 and 2 only
- B. 1 and 3 only
- C. 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q10. The National One Health Programme for Prevention and Control of Zoonoses, under which joint human-animal-environment outbreak investigation teams are deployed, is operationalised through which one of the following units?
- A. The Centre for One Health of the National Centre for Disease Control
- B. The Animal Disease Surveillance Division of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying
- C. The Division of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases of the Indian Council of Medical Research
- D. The Integrated Disease Surveillance Division of the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence