WHO declared China Malaria free!

• Malaria is caused by single-celled microorganisms/ Parasite of the Plasmodium group. The disease is most commonly spread by an infected female Anopheles mosquito.
• Malaria Parasite jumped from Gorilla to humans. RH5 protein can bind with human RBCs.
• Argentina and Algeria both certified malaria free by WHO. And now China.

Initiatives for Malaria

• Odisha Government had launched a malaria control programme – "Durgama Anchalare Malaria Nirakaran (DAMaN)" initiative.
• Ingenious technique to eradicate mosquito.
  1. Through 2 population control methods viz. Radiation and Bacteria (named Wolbachia).
  2. Through radiation the mosquito is sterilized and through bacteria the eggs are dead.
  3. The test is done on AedesAlbopictus mosquito which is the vector for Zika and Dengue.
• The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM)
  1. It is a 21st C partnership organization to end AIDS, TB and Malaria. It was founded in 2002 to pool World resources as a partnership between Govts, Civil society, Private sector etc.
  2. India has recently announced a contribution of $22 million to the GFTAM.
• SDG 3.3 set a target of ending epidemics of AIDS, TB & Malaria by 2030 in Key populations
• Combination therapy using Malaria drug (Chloroquin + Isoniazid) quickly clears TB.India has announced a contribution of $22 million to the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFTAM) for the 6th replenishment cycle (2020-22).
• Malawi recently launched the world’s first malaria vaccine RTS,S (Mosquirix)
  1. To provide partial protection against malaria in young children.
  2. Financing is mobilized through 3 bodies: GAVI, Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and UNAID.
  3. Malaria is caused by Plasmodium Falciparum parasite that are transmitted to people through bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. It is preventable and curable.
  4. The National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016-2030 lays out the vision, mission and principles to achieve the target of malaria elimination by 2030.

WHO declared China malaria-free

• The World Health Organization (WHO) declaring that China was “malaria-free” followed a seven decade-long, multi-pronged health strategy that was able to entirely eliminate indigenous cases for four straight years, health experts said.
• The “malaria-free” certification from the WHO this week followed a visit in May from an independent panel to verify China’s malaria-free status, which requires four consecutive years of reporting no local cases.
• The number of malaria cases worldwide in 2019 was around 229 million, according to the World Malaria Report in 2020, with 409,000 lives lost to the mosquito-borne disease.
• The 2020 report said the majority of cases were reported in Africa, while India and Southeast Asia recorded a significant drop.
• Cases in India fell from approximately 20 million to 6 million, according to the 2020 report.
• The WHO said China is the first country in the Western Pacific region to be declared malaria-free in more than 30 years, following Australia in 1981, Singapore in 1982 and Brunei in 1987.

What was China’s strategy?

• The effort began in the early 1950s, a time when China was reporting millions of cases annually, starting with a multi-pronged approach of providing anti-malarial medicines while targeting mosquito breeding grounds and using insecticide spraying.
• A national effort called ‘the 523 Project’ was launched in 1967 involving more than 500 scientists from 60 institutes, the WHO noted, leading to the discovery of artemisinin in the 1970s, which is “the core compound of artemisinin-based combination therapies, the most effective antimalarial drugs available today”.
• In the 1980s, China began using insecticide-treated nets widely, distributing 2.4 million nets by 1988. Cases began to drop, down to 117,000 in 1990. The number would fall to 5,000 annually by the end of the following decade.
• With assistance from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria starting in 2003, China “stepped up training, staffing, laboratory equipment, medicines and mosquito control, an effort that led to a further reduction in cases,” the WHO said.
• ‘1-3-7 strategy’: It credited China’s public health system offering free of charge diagnosis and treatment of malaria in bringing down cases to zero, as well as a “1-3-7 strategy” referring to a one-day deadline to report a malaria diagnosis, confirming a case and determining the spread by the third day, and measures taken to stop the spread by the seventh day, along with continued surveillance in high-risk areas.
• At the same time, concern over imported cases remains, particularly from Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, which share a border with the southwestern Yunnan province.

For detailed post on all the Vector borne diseases: click here

Pregnant women can take vaccination

• Pregnant women in India are now eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Union Health Ministry giving the approval based on recommendations of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI).
• The decision empowers pregnant women to make an informed choice on taking the COVID-19 vaccination, the Ministry said, adding these women can now register on Cowin or walk into the nearest vaccination centre to get themselves inoculated.
• The decision has been communicated to all the States and Union Territories.
• Studies have shown that COVID infection during pregnancy may result in rapid deterioration of health of pregnant women and they are at an increased risk of severe diseases and it might affect the foetus too, a statement from the Ministry said.
• Further, pregnant women with COVID-19 infection are at an increased risk for preterm birth and other adverse pregnancy outcomes, including higher chances of neonatal morbidity.
• Additionally, the experts have also highlighted pre-existing co-morbidities, advanced maternal age, and high body mass index as factors for severe COVID-19 in pregnancy.
• The Ministry has accepted recommendations made by the NTAGI and the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration.
• Pregnant women can opt for any COVID-19 vaccine available in the country at any time during their pregnancy.

OPEC and OPEC+ Countries

About OPEC

• It is an intergovernmental organization of 13 nations, founded in 1960 in Baghdad by the first five members (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela). HQ is in Vienna, Austria.
• It aims to manage the supply of oil in an effort to set the price of oil in the world market, in order to avoid fluctuations that might affect the economies of both producing and purchasing countries.
• The current OPEC members are the following:
  1. South America: Venezuela (Ecuador left).
  2. Africa: Nigeria, Algeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Libya, DRC Congo (joined in 2018).
  3. Asia: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia (the De facto leader).
  4. Former OPEC members are Ecuador, Indonesia and Qatar.
• OPEC membership is open to any country that is a substantial exporter of oil and which shares the ideals of the organization.
• They have an estimated 44% of global oil production and 81.5% of the world's "proven" oil reserves. India sources about 86 % of crude oil, 75 % of natural gas and 95 % of LPG from OPEC member nations.
• A larger group called OPEC+ was formed in late 2016 to have more control over the global crude oil market. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for OPEC oil has fallen to a 30-year low in the second quarter of 2020.

OPEC+

• The non-OPEC countries which export crude oil along with the 14 OPECs are termed as OPEC plus countries.
• OPEC plus countries = Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, South Sudan, and Sudan.
• India is not a member of OPEC + countries.
• OPEC member countries produce about 40 per cent of the world’s crude oil.
• Equally important to global prices, OPEC’s oil exports represent about 60 per cent of the total petroleum traded internationally.
• Saudi and Russia had a three-year alliance of oil producers known as OPEC Plus — which now includes 11 OPEC members and 10 non-OPEC nations — that aims to shore up oil prices with production cuts.

E Sanjeevani Telemedicine Service

• Union Health Ministry's National Telemedicine Service – eSanjeevani has crossed another milestone by completing 7 million (70 lakh) consultations.
• Patients consult with doctors and specialists on a daily basis using this innovative digital medium to seek Health services.
• In another significant milestone, in June it served around 12.5 lakh patients, which is the highest since the services were launched last year in March.
• Currently, the National Telemedicine Service is operational in 31 States/Union Territories.
• eSanjeevaniAB-HWC – the doctor-to-doctor telemedicine platform has been implemented at around 21,000 Health and Wellness Centres as spokes and over 1900 hubs, which are located in District Hospitals and Medical Colleges in around 30 States. The doctor-to-doctor telemedicine platform has served over 32 lakh patients. The Ministry of Defence too has hosted a National OPD on eSanjeevaniOPD, where over 100 veteran doctors and specialists - roped in by the Ministry of Defence, serve patients across the country.

What is eSanjeevani OPD?

• In April last year, soon after the first National lockdown, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched eSanjeevaniOPD, owing to the ranging pandemic.
• eSanjeevaniOPD is a patient-to-doctor telemedicine platform and provisions health services to the public in the confines of their homes.
• 420 OnlineOPDs are hosted on eSanjeevaniOPD and the platform hosts speciality and super-speciality OPDs, as well many of these speciality and super-specialty OPDs are being managed by premium hospitals like AIIMS in 5 States (Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Telangana, West Bengal, Uttarakhand), King George Medical University in Lucknow etc.
• From past 2 weeks over 50,000 patients have been utilising eSanjeevani services and around 2000 doctors practice telemedicine on daily basis.
• The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is consistently working towards increasing the reach of this state-of-the-art National Telemedicine Service.
• Last month, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with the Ministry of Electronics & IT and C-DAC in Mohali had enabled the provision of accessing eSanjeevani services through 3.75 Common Service Centres across the country free of cost, for those on the other side of the digital health divide.

Conclusion

• In a short span of time, Govt. of India’s National Telemedicine Service has started aiding the Indian healthcare delivery system by plugging the digital health divide that exists in urban and rural India.
• It is also addressing the shortage of doctors and specialists at the ground level while reducing the burden on secondary and tertiary level hospitals. In line with the National Digital Health Mission, eSanjeevani is also boosting the digital health ecosystem in the country.

Everything about: Gravitational Waves

Gravitational Waves (GW):

• When 2 black holes merge, it will radiate GW. GW are ‘ripples’ in the fabric of space-time caused by some of the most violent and energetic processes in the Universe.
• They are extremely weak so are very difficult to detect.
• Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916 in his general theory of relativity.
• These ripples travel at the speed of light without being scattered significantly.

Sources of Gravitational waves

• Mergers of black holes or neutron stars, rapidly rotating neutron stars, supernova explosions and the remnants of the disturbance caused by the formation of the universe, the Big Bang itself, are the strongest sources.
• There can be many other sources, but these are likely to be too weak to detect.

Interferometer

• It is an instrument that uses interference patterns formed by waves (usually light, radio, or sound waves) to measure certain characteristics of the waves themselves or of materials that reflect, refract, or transmit the waves.
• Interferometers can also be used to make precise measurements of distance.
• Interference patterns are produced when two identical series of waves are brought together.

Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO)

• It is the world's largest gravitational wave observatory and a wonder of precision engineering.
• It comprises of two enormous laser interferometers located thousands of kilometres apart, each having two arms which are 4 km long. The detectors are in (Livingston) Louisiana and (Hanford) Washington.
• It exploits the physical properties of light and of space itself to detect and understand the origins of Gravitational Waves (GW). Upgraded version is called Advanced LIGO.
• The Japanese detector, KAGRA, or Kamioka Gravitational-wave Detector, is expected to join the international network soon.
• LIGO detectors: Unlike optical or radio telescopes, it does not see electromagnetic radiation

IndIGO (India Initiative of GW Observations) in Hingoli district, Maharashtra.

• The proposed LIGO-India project aims to move one Advanced LIGO detector from Hanford to India.
• LIGO-India project is envisaged as an international collaboration between the LIGO Laboratory and 3 lead institutions in the IndIGO consortium: Institute of Plasma Research (IPR) Gandhinagar, Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune and Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT), Indore.

Significance of IndiGo Project

• To locate the source of gravitational waves more accurately.
• Identification of new sources.
• The project will help Indian scientific community to be a major player in the emerging research frontier of GW astronomy.
• The high-end engineering requirements of the project (such as the world's largest ultra-high vacuum facility) will provide unprecedented opportunities for Indian industries in collaboration with academic research institutions.
• A cutting edge project in India can serve as a local focus to interest and inspire students and young scientists.