Daily Current Affairs Prelims 08 May 2024

• The Kerala government issued an alert against West Nile fever, a mosquito-borne viral infection after one death and eight cases were reported.
• Symptoms of the infection include high fever, headache, neck stiffness, disorientation, stupor, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, and paralysis.
• Most of the symptoms are similar to that of Japanese encephalitis.
• However, 80% of the patients do not show any symptoms.
• The disease is spread by the Culex species of mosquitoes.
• As per the World Health Organization (WHO), human infection is most often the result of bites from infected mosquitoes; happens when they feed on infected birds, which circulate the virus in their blood for a few days.
• There has been no human-to-human transmission so far.
• The WHO says that the treatment is supportive for patients with neuro-invasive West Nile virus, often involving hospitalisation, intravenous fluids, respiratory support, and prevention of secondary infections.
• No vaccine is available for humans.

Dig Deeper: Read about Japanese Encephalitis.

• The Central Drug Standard Control Organisation’s (CDSCO) Subject Expert Committee has approved Bharat Biotech International’s proposal to conduct the Phase 2 clinical trial of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (live attenuated) vaccine to assess the safety and immunogenicity in adolescent and adult populations.
• According to a release, the MTBVAC is the first vaccine against TB derived from a human source to begin clinical trials in adults in India.
• This vaccine was developed in the laboratory of the University of Zaragoza, in collaboration with Brigitte Gicquel of the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

Dig Deeper: Can the BCG vaccine prevent TB and what is the DOT Programme?

• Superplasticizers are effective water-reducing admixtures used in making concrete.
• They disperse and deflocculate cement particles thus making concrete flowing, pourable and easily placed.
• In normal cement pastes, cement particles tend to form large ‘floes’ due to attractive forces acting between them resulting in more water added increases the W/C ratio and affects the concrete’s properties.
• They are sulphonated melamine formaldehyde condensates or sulphonated naphthalene formaldehyde condensates.
• They are used to produce high-strength concrete using normal workability but a very low water/cement ratio to reduce the heat of hydration in mass concrete.

Dig Deeper: Read about Polycarboxylates.

• A study in the journal GeoHealth highlighted that during British Columbia’s extreme heat event in 2021, individuals with schizophrenia were more severely affected than those with kidney or heart disease.
• Climate change also triggers specific psychological conditions such as eco-anxiety, eco-paralysis, and solastalgia, distress caused by environmental alterations.
• Vulnerability in people with schizophrenia to heat stress may stem from hypothalamic dysfunction, which regulates vital bodily functions like temperature and heart rate.
• Antipsychotic medications can increase body temperature, exacerbating risks during heat waves.
• Additionally, such individuals may experience anosognosia, a lack of awareness of their illness, further increasing their risk during environmental stresses.

Dig Deeper: What is the difference between Schizophrenia and Parkinsons disease?

• The World Health Day (April 7) theme for 2024 was “My health, my right”.
• The World Health Organization defines health as “physical, social and mental well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
• The Supreme Court observed the right to health includes the right to palliative care in the PIL filed by Rajshree Nagaraju (2024).
• Palliative care is specialised medical care for people suffering from serious ailments and health conditions of a terminal nature.
• The Supreme Court (2023) held that any advance medical directive left by a mentally competent person will be valid and binding on healthcare professionals in the clarification of the judgment Common Cause judgement (2018) sought by the Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Dig Deeper: What is the difference between active Euthanasia and Passive Euthanasia?

• A maximum residue limit (MRL) is the highest level of a pesticide residue that is legally tolerated in or on food or feed when pesticides are applied correctly in accordance with Good Agricultural Practice.
• The FSSAI has clarified that for pesticides that are registered with the ministry of Agriculture but don’t have maximum residue limits (MRL) under Indian regulation for spices, the global Codex Alimentarius Commission standards will be used.
• If it is not mentioned in the Codex, then the MRL of 0.1 mg/ Kg will be followed. For pesticides that aren’t registered with the Ministry of Agriculture at all, the MRL of 0.1 mg/ kg will be applicable, the order read.
• This comes after the recent banning of Indian spices by Singapore and Hong Kong.

Dig Deeper: Read about adulterants in food items and cosmetics