Disease Dilemmas | OCR A-Level Geography (H481)

Disease Dilemmas

271 questions
18 subtopics
Component 03: Geographical debates, two of five
Component 03

Disease Dilemmas is examined in Component 03, Geographical debates.

It covers ways of classifying disease, and the epidemic to pandemic scale, mapping the burden of malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, diabetes and heart disease, disease diffusion, the Hägerstrand model and the barriers that slow it, temperature, rainfall, relief and water supply as controls on disease, mosquitoes, vectors and the seasonal rhythm of outbreaks, climate change, emerging infections and diseases that jump from animals, cholera in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, rising living standards and the epidemiological transition, diseases of poverty and diseases of affluence, air pollution and lung cancer in China, malaria in Nigeria: from causes to control, cardiovascular disease in the United Kingdom, the World Health Organization and the surveillance of global outbreaks, médecins Sans Frontières and the West African Ebola epidemic, physical barriers to treatment and the fight against HIV and AIDS, medicinal plants, their growing conditions and the trade that threatens them, pharmaceutical transnationals and the global flow of medicines and eradication campaigns, grassroots education and the role of women.

Sample questions from Disease Dilemmas

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Ways of classifying disease, and the epidemic to pandemic scale

Give an example of a communicable disease that is not contagious, and explain why it is not.

Show the answer
Malaria is communicable but not contagious, because it passes from person to person only through the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito and never by contact.
Disease diffusion, the Hägerstrand model and the barriers that slow it

Which geographer devised the four-stage model of diffusion used in disease geography?

Show the answer
Torsten Hägerstrand, a Swedish geographer working in the 1950s.
Mosquitoes, vectors and the seasonal rhythm of outbreaks

Name the vector of sleeping sickness in Africa.

Show the answer
The tsetse fly.
Cholera in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake

Why was Haiti's population so vulnerable to cholera in 2010?

Show the answer
Cholera had not been recorded in Haiti for a century so nobody had any immunity, and the country was already the poorest in the Americas with very limited safe water and sanitation.
Diseases of poverty and diseases of affluence

Explain how undernutrition and infection reinforce one another.

Show the answer
Undernutrition weakens the immune system so infections take hold more easily, and infection reduces appetite and the absorption of nutrients, which deepens the undernutrition in a cycle.
Malaria in Nigeria: from causes to control

Give three human causes that raise malaria transmission in Nigeria.

Show the answer
Rapid urban growth producing informal settlements with open water and poor drainage, housing without screens or ceilings, and limited household money for nets, diagnosis and medicines.
The World Health Organization and the surveillance of global outbreaks

Why does declaring an international public health emergency matter?

Show the answer
The declaration triggers coordinated surveillance, travel and trade advice, releases emergency funding and political attention, and obliges countries to share information.
Physical barriers to treatment and the fight against HIV and AIDS

What is the cold chain, and why do physical barriers threaten it?

Show the answer
The cold chain is the unbroken refrigeration needed to keep vaccines effective from factory to patient, and long journeys across difficult terrain without mains power make it very hard to keep doses cold enough.

The 18 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Ways of classifying disease, and the epidemic to pandemic scale	Recall questions on infectious and non-infectious, communicable and noncommunicable, and contagious disease, malaria as communicable but not contagious, endemic, epidemic and pandemic disease, vector-borne and chronic disease, classifying tuberculosis, and the difference between incidence and prevalence.	13
Mapping the burden of malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, diabetes and heart disease	Recall questions on the causes, vectors and global distribution of malaria and its toll on young children in Africa, the distribution and prevalence of HIV in southern Africa, the pattern and scale of tuberculosis, the global rise and distribution of diabetes, cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death, and contrasting disease maps.	14
Disease diffusion, the Hägerstrand model and the barriers that slow it	Recall questions on disease diffusion, expansion, contagious, hierarchical and relocation diffusion, Torsten Hägerstrand's four-stage model and its S-shaped curve, the neighbourhood effect, physical and socio-economic barriers to diffusion and why they are permeable, and how air travel has changed the spread of disease.	16
Temperature, rainfall, relief and water supply as controls on disease	Recall questions on why malaria is confined to warm regions and limited by altitude, standing water and heavy rainfall, drought and water-borne disease, schistosomiasis and irrigation schemes, river blindness beside fast rivers, the African meningitis belt and the Harmattan, relief and access to healthcare, humidity, and tropical rainfall patterns.	13
Mosquitoes, vectors and the seasonal rhythm of outbreaks	Recall questions on vectors and mosquito ecology, Aedes aegypti and dengue in tropical cities, the tsetse fly and sleeping sickness, ticks and Lyme disease, malaria seasons in the Sahel and the Congo Basin, monsoon rains in South Asia, winter influenza, cholera's two peaks in Bangladesh, drought and water storage, and using transmission seasons.	13
Climate change, emerging infections and diseases that jump from animals	Recall questions on emerging infectious diseases, how warming extends vector-borne disease, West Nile virus in the Americas, the tsetse fly's changing range, longer tick seasons in northern Europe, flooding and water-borne disease, zoonotic diseases and their share of emerging infections, avian influenza, rabies, and the human activities that drive spillover.	14
Cholera in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake	Recall questions on the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the start and scale of the cholera epidemic in the Artibonite valley, how Vibrio cholerae spreads, why Haiti was vulnerable, the environmental and human factors behind its spread, its effects on patients and on society and the economy, oral rehydration, national and international responses, and the link between hazards and disease.	16
Rising living standards and the epidemiological transition	Recall questions on Omran's epidemiological transition and its stages, how clean water, sanitation and nutrition change a population's disease profile, the link to the demographic transition, the double burden of disease in India, why the transition proceeds at different speeds, and why life expectancy can hide the disease burden.	14
Diseases of poverty and diseases of affluence	Recall questions on diseases of poverty and of affluence, the communicable disease burden of LIDCs, undernutrition and infection, indoor air pollution, noncommunicable disease in advanced and urbanising countries, why the affluence label misleads, neglected tropical diseases, household costs of illness, tuberculosis in rich countries, and cheap health measures.	13
Air pollution and lung cancer in China	Recall questions on PM2.5 and lung cancer in Chinese cities, the coal, traffic and household sources of pollution, Beijing's 2013 airpocalypse against the WHO guideline, how particulates cause cancer, lung cancer cases and smoking in China, winter pollution in the north, the 2013 action plan and its measures, results in Beijing, and international action.	14
Malaria in Nigeria: from causes to control	Recall questions on Nigeria's share of global malaria, Plasmodium falciparum and Anopheles mosquitoes, transmission in southern and northern Nigeria, environmental and human causes, the groups most at risk, effects on education and the economy, insecticidal nets, indoor spraying, seasonal chemoprevention, artemisinin therapy, rapid tests, indirect strategies, international funders, and the malaria vaccine.	17
Cardiovascular disease in the United Kingdom	Recall questions on cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis, its prevalence, deaths and cost in the United Kingdom, modifiable risk factors such as salt and smoking, regional, deprivation, ethnic and cultural patterns, the falling death rate, the NHS Health Check and medical and government strategies, and the WHO action plan, SDG target 3.4, HEARTS, tobacco treaty, SHAKE and REPLACE.	25
The World Health Organization and the surveillance of global outbreaks	Recall questions on the founding and functions of the World Health Organization, how it gathers disease data, Public Health Emergencies of International Concern, outbreak prediction and influenza vaccine strains, the emergence, spread and containment of SARS, the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, and the weakness of relying on national reporting.	14
Médecins Sans Frontières and the West African Ebola epidemic	Recall questions on Médecins Sans Frontières, the start and scale of the West African Ebola epidemic in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, how Ebola spreads, Liberia's death toll, the ELWA 3 centre, MSF's wider roles, isolation and traditional funerals, MSF's 2014 warning, and the advantages and limits of NGOs in an epidemic.	13
Physical barriers to treatment and the fight against HIV and AIDS	Recall questions on how mountains, floods and remoteness hinder healthcare and vaccination, remoteness as protection, the cold chain, drones and community health workers, how HIV causes AIDS and spreads, screening, antiretroviral therapy and its falling cost, international funding, education strategies, and stigma.	16
Medicinal plants, their growing conditions and the trade that threatens them	Recall questions on medicines from nature, sweet wormwood and artemisinin, the rosy periwinkle of Madagascar, its growing conditions and the vincristine and vinblastine drawn from it, the plant material needed, its international trade and unequal benefit sharing, the threats wild harvesting and cultivation pose to species and ecosystems, sustainable trade, and forest loss.	15
Pharmaceutical transnationals and the global flow of medicines	Recall questions on pharmaceutical transnationals, GlaxoSmithKline and its malaria vaccine, the cost of developing medicines, patents and the debate over them, generic medicines and HIV treatment, compulsory licensing, the global flows a drug company creates, where research clusters, the 10/90 gap, drug donation programmes, and tiered pricing.	14
Eradication campaigns, grassroots education and the role of women	Recall questions on eradication and elimination, smallpox and ring vaccination, the polio campaign and its difficulties, the strengths and weaknesses of top-down strategies, grassroots strategies and guinea worm, why women and girls' education are central to disease control, India's Accredited Social Health Activists, and combining top-down and bottom-up approaches.	17

Disease Dilemmas is 271 of the 3,740 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £7

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.