Page 133 - Viva ICSE Science 5 : E-book

Diseases Caused due to Lack of Personal Hygiene
and Unclean Surrounding

Unclean places are good grounds for the growth of disease causing microorganisms

like bacteria, fungi and protozoa. These disease causing germs spread through air,
water, food and insects. They enter our homes and body, cause diseases and make us
sick. These diseases spread easily from one person to another and so they are called

communicable diseases.

• Unclean drinking water may cause diseases like jaundice,
typhoid and cholera.

• Eating unhygienic food may cause food poisoning, typhoid
and diarrhoea.

• Not washing ourselves properly or wearing unclean clothes

can cause many skin diseases like scabies, ringworm and
athlete’s foot.

• Diseases like common cold, tuberculosis, infl uenza and
measles spread through air. Any infected person coughing

or sneezing without covering the mouth releases germs in
the air, which may infect a healthy person.

• Malaria, dengue and chikungunya are diseases caused by mosquito bites. Therefore,
we need to keep our surroundings clean to prevent them from becoming breeding

ground for mosquitoes.
Did You Know!
We must visit a doctor and take prescribed To prevent occurrence of certain
medicines if we suff er from any such diseases. diseases in future, children at certain
ages are given special medicines.
However, we can prevent spread of these
These are called vaccines. Vaccines
communicable diseases by maintaining are given for diseases like

proper hygiene of our body, food, water and infl uenza, chickenpox, polio
and tuberculosis.
surroundings.

Biodegradable and Non-biodegradable Wastes

Every moment we produce diff erent types of wastes. We need to know about the various

types of wastes we produce in order to be aware of their safe disposal. Disposing the
wastes safely is important for safety of living beings and environment as a whole. Wastes
are divided into two categories—biodegradable wastes and non-biodegradable wastes.

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