Daily News Compilation (HINDU) for 24th April

A virus to watch out for

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)

In September 2012, an alert Egyptian doctor working in a Saudi Arabian hospital isolated a new human virus in samples taken from a man who had died of pneumonia and kidney failure. The virus came to be known as the MERS-CoV.

By late last month, 200 laboratory-confirmed cases of people infected by the virus were reported to the World Health Organisation, with 85 deaths.

India — especially States like Kerala — needs to be watchful. “Countries that have large numbers of travellers to the region, including workers, are reminded of the need for vigilance in the form of surveillance, and the importance of good infection control practices in managing patients with acute respiratory infections,” the WHO cautioned in an update last month. 

Unlike the swine-origin flu virus that caused the 2009 pandemic, the MERS virus does not easily spread from one person to another. But it has a high case fatality rate and its appearance here could well fuel public anxiety. That can be avoided if the Central and State governments put in place well thought-out plans for testing and surveillance as well as for dealing with any cases that turn up. Likewise, hospitals, both government-run ones and those in the private sector, need to be ready to handle patients who have the virus.

Japan Navy chief’s message for new Indian govt.

The new government that will take charge in New Delhi next month has been given a clear message from Japan’s top-most naval official: Tokyo hopes the Indian political establishment — which under two terms of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has generally been cautious on boosting military ties with Japan, keeping China’s concerns in mind— will do “much more” to build closer relations.

Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano, Chief of Staff of Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF), said his country has been “wanting very much” to re-join the bilateral Malabar sea exercises between the United States and India. Japan was last invited to join the exercise in 2007, but has subsequently been kept out after China protested the three-way exercises and suggested they were aimed at Beijing.

Experts predict below normal monsoon

The Indian economy could be in for more trouble in the coming days, with weather experts predicting below normal rainfall this year during the south-west monsoon across the country barring the north-east and the eastern parts.

El Nino phenomenon

The experts have come to their conclusion based on indications that there was a strong possibility of the development of El Nino phenomenon this year.

The El Nino condition, which is known to weaken the south Asian monsoon circulation and adversely impact rainfall over the region, develops when the waters in the equatorial pacific region becomes warmer than normal.

During February through early parts of March, the conditions in the region were on the borderline of La Nina, the opposite of El Nino, when the waters are cooler than normal.

But, a subsequent warming trend over the region through the middle of the current month has caused the conditions to become warm-neutral and forecasts from almost all prediction models indicate that the warming trend could continue leading to the development of El Nino during the monsoon season.

With in-flight curbs on devices off, welcome aboard work and play

Menu cards for vultures, clean environment on the table

Conservationists stand by “Vulture Restaurants”, a new concept that aims to augment the population of the scavenging birds, which help keep the environment clean by feeding on carrion.

According to noted conservationist T.K. Roy, the vultures are provided safe supplementary food.

Explaining how the restaurants are run, the conservationist said dead cattle that have died a natural death are collected from a village and fed to vultures. “A veterinary conducts a post-mortem to unearth whether it died naturally or due to poison. Only if the cattle died naturally then it is fed to vultures.”

Population of White-Rumped Vulture ( Gyps bengalensis ) declined rapidly between 2000 and 2007. “The decline took place because vultures fed on carcasses of domestic animals, which had been administered anti-inflammatory toxic veterinary drug Diclofenac.”

The bird’s population has stabilised as South Asia’s Vultures from Extinction (SAVE) — a consortium of regional and international organisations to save threatened vultures in South Asia in collaboration with Bombay Natural History Society — has been running captive breeding centres.

SpaceX takes a step towards rocket reuse

Last week, the U.S. space company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket with an unmanned capsule carrying cargo for the International Space Station. The mission also took a step towards making the rocket reusable, with its spent first stage making a controlled descent into the Atlantic Ocean.

Much of the human conquest of space has been achieved with ‘expendable launch vehicles,’ rockets that are used just once. Such one-time use has made space travel exorbitantly expensive. Although it was hoped that reuse of the Space Shuttle would lower launch costs, this complex flying machine ended up being more expensive than expendable rockets.

Engaging the private sector in the global war against malaria

1. World Malaria Day (25 April)

2. private sector involvement helpful because:

• it helps expand market
• increases access to life saving drugs
• investment is low but returns are high as:

>> there is a more productive workforce

>> healthier communities

3. India needs to step up its efforts because:

• 700 days left for MDGs
• 95% of the population lives in Malaria endemic areas
• estimated 1 million cases of infection in 2012 reported by the government

Asia-Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance (APLMA)

a regional alliance of Heads of Government aimed at combating malaria and containing the spread of drug resistant malaria through cross-border and multisectoral collaboration. During the launch of APLMA at last October's East Asia Summit, 18 leaders, including the President of India endorsed APLMA and welcomed its creation.

Childhood TB: symptom-based contact screening safe, reliable

WHO released an updated guidance for national TB programmes (NTPs) on the management of tuberculosis in children:

• first new recommendation is the use of Xpert MTB/RIF, a rapid molecular assay, as the initial diagnostic test for children suspected of having multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) or HIV-associated TB. In effect, Xpert displaces smear microscopy and culture as the initial diagnostic test for these two categories.

India is only now slowly expanding the availability of Xpert test to diagnose MDR-TB in adults. Only 38 Xpert machines were available in 30 locations as of November last year.

A few days ago, for the first time in the country, the Revised National TB Control Programme, along with other agencies, took a right step in addressing the needs of children with MDR-TB. A pilot project for three months was launched to diagnose using Xpert the missed cases and children with MDR-TB in Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and New Delhi.

• Unlike in the case of MDR-TB, the recommendation for Xpert as a diagnostic test is only “conditional” in the case of drug-sensitive TB and extra-pulmonary TB.
• In the case of children with TB meningitis, WHO “strongly recommends” Xpert as the first diagnostic test, considering the urgency of rapid diagnosis.

Children below five years of age and HIV-positive children living in the same household as the diseased adult, MDR-TB included, run the greatest risk of getting infected with TB, particularly when there has been close contact for prolonged duration

It is important to note that children aged below five years run a great risk of developing TB disease within one year of infection; it is about a few weeks in the case of infants.

• Therefore, there is a “strong recommendation” to undertake contact screening when an adult meets one of the following criteria: sputum smear-positive pulmonary TB; has MDR-TB; is HIV positive or if the contact is less than five years of age.

The guidance makes a marked departure from the established method of screening children who are in close contact with adults who have smear positive pulmonary TB. While the usual practice is to use tuberculin skin test (TST) for confirming infection, and chest X-ray (CXR) for confirming disease, the guidance states: “routine assessment of exposed contacts does not require CXR or TST. These tests have limitations and are often not readily available.” Hence, in the absence of TST or CXR, “clinical assessment alone is sufficient” to know if the child contact is disease-free.

• According to WHO, the symptom-based screening has been found to be “safe and more feasible than diagnostic test-based screening in resource-limited settings.” Only children with TB symptoms need to be referred to secondary level for further assessment, it states.

The radical shift from test-based approach to symptom-based approach would mean that “screening can [now] be done by health workers at a peripheral level.”

• The WHO “strongly recommends” preventive therapy using a single dose of isoniazid daily for six months when the contact does not have TB disease. This recommendation is based on the “high quality of evidence.” But WHO does not recommend preventive therapy for contacts of MDR-TB index cases.

Contact screening has twin benefits:

1. it helps in testing contacts early and starting treatment without much delay, 

2. while the isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) “greatly reduces the likelihood” of children developing disease during childhood.

‘All schools should adopt a uniform canteen policy’

Asserting that banning junk food in schools is the need of the hour, the Centre for Science and Environment Director-General Sunita Narain has demanded that a uniform canteen policy be adopted by all unaided and private schools across the country.