Practice tests · NEET

NEET Human Health and Disease: 5 practice MCQs with answers

By the PrepMatic team · Updated 9 Oct 2026 · 3 min read

Human Health and Disease is a Class 12 Biology chapter on pathogens, immunity, cancer and the abuse of drugs and alcohol. It is a high-yield chapter for NEET because most questions are direct NCERT facts: the causative organism, the vector, the type of immunity. The five MCQs below test the infective stage of Plasmodium, typhoid, HIV, passive immunity and the properties of malignant tumours.

What this chapter covers in the NEET syllabus

This chapter falls under the NMC unit Biology and Human Welfare, and in NCERT it is the Class 12 chapter Human Health and Disease. The topics are:

• Common diseases in humans: typhoid, pneumonia, common cold, malaria, amoebiasis, ascariasis, filariasis and ringworm, with their causes and prevention.
• Immunity: innate and acquired, active and passive, humoral and cell-mediated, vaccination and allergies.
• Autoimmunity and the immune system, including AIDS: transmission, symptoms and prevention.
• Cancer: types, causes, detection and treatment.
• Adolescence, drug and alcohol abuse, and the effects of drugs.

Five practice MCQs on Human Health and Disease

Question 1

The stage of Plasmodium that is injected into the human body by the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito is the:

• A. merozoite
• B. sporozoite
• C. trophozoite
• D. gametocyte

Question 2

Typhoid fever in humans is caused by:

• A. Salmonella typhi
• B. Streptococcus pneumoniae
• C. Haemophilus influenzae
• D. Plasmodium vivax

Question 3

HIV mainly attacks and destroys:

• A. red blood cells
• B. platelets
• C. helper T lymphocytes
• D. neurons

Question 4

The antibodies (IgA) received by a new-born baby through the mother's colostrum provide:

• A. active immunity
• B. innate immunity
• C. immunity by vaccination
• D. passive immunity

Question 5

A distinguishing feature of malignant tumours is that they:

• A. can spread to other parts of the body (metastasis)
• B. remain confined to their site of origin
• C. grow slowly with contact inhibition intact
• D. are always harmless

Answers and explanations

1. B. When an infected female Anopheles bites, it injects sporozoites, the infectious form of the parasite, into the blood. They go to the liver, multiply and later infect red blood cells as merozoites. Gametocytes are taken up by the mosquito.
2. A. Typhoid is caused by the bacterium Salmonella typhi, spread through contaminated food and water. It is confirmed by the Widal test. Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae cause pneumonia, and Plasmodium causes malaria.
3. C. HIV enters macrophages and helper T lymphocytes (TH cells), and in the latter it makes copies of its RNA genome as DNA by reverse transcription. The number of helper T cells in the body decreases progressively, so the person becomes immunodeficient.
4. D. Antibodies given ready-made from the mother (through the placenta as IgG and in colostrum as IgA) provide passive immunity, because the baby's own immune system did not make them. Active immunity arises when the body makes its own antibodies, as after infection or vaccination.
5. A. Malignant tumours are invasive: their cells break away and spread through blood or lymph to other parts of the body (metastasis). Benign tumours remain localised and do not spread. Normal cells show contact inhibition, which cancer cells have lost.

How to prepare Human Health and Disease

• Build a disease table. Disease, pathogen, vector or mode of transmission, symptoms and preventive measures. Group the diseases by type of pathogen (bacteria, virus, protozoa, helminth, fungi). This table covers most of the chapter's questions.
• Learn the life cycle of Plasmodium in order (sporozoites, liver, merozoites in RBCs, rupture and the release of haemozoin, gametocytes) and link it with the fever pattern.
• Master immunity as a map. Innate versus acquired; primary versus secondary response; B cells and antibodies versus T cells; antibody structure (H2L2, four chains); and the five classes of antibodies (IgA, IgM, IgE, IgG, IgD).
• Know AIDS in detail: the modes of transmission, the course of the infection and the diagnostic test (ELISA). Questions often ask which route does not transmit HIV.
• Remember the drug and alcohol part as plant-source pairs: opioids (poppy plant, Papaver somniferum), cannabinoids (Cannabis sativa), coca alkaloid (Erythroxylum coca). Add the effects and the preventive measures.

Revising the disease table and immunity map twice a week is more effective than a single long read. See the NEET Biology preparation guide for planning, and the NEET syllabus for the units.

Take a full Human Health and Disease test on PrepMatic

Disease tables stick better when you test against them repeatedly. PrepMatic's topic tests are about 15 questions in 30 minutes, with NEET's negative marking in the score, and the free Basic plan includes them. More chapters are on the practice hub.

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