There are many diseases that cannot be cured. No medicines are there yet to treat them like AIDS or cancer. So it is better not to get the disease rather than to cure it. If we can prevent the disease to occur then no medicines are required. More over the medicines have several side effects that may destroy some other system while curing a disease. Thus it is better to prevent the disease to occur than to cure it by applying medicines.Preventing exposures to infections . Availability of proper and sufficient food. taking vaccines against a particular disease are the best ways how we can prevent diseases.
Hence prevention is better than cure.