Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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Reality different in ‘leprosy-free’ India, says Supreme Court

News

• India “underestimated” leprosy and diverted funds meant to eliminate the curable disease for 18 long years, the Supreme Court

Beyond News

• In its 22-page judgment, a Bench pointed out that though the country was declared leprosy-free on December 31, 2005, the reality is “entirely different”.
• The Supreme Court referred to progress reports of the National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) to show that only 543 districts of the total 642 districts in the country had achieved the World Health Organisation-required prevalence rate of less than one case of leprosy for 10,000 persons.
• Meanwhile, patients and their families continue to suffer from leprosy and its stigma. They are even denied their fundamental right to food. They are not issued BPL (Below Poverty Line) cards to claim the benefit of various welfare schemes such as the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY). They are deprived of housing, basic civic amenities, adequate sanitary facilities and rehabilitation programmes.
• Issuing a slew of guidelines, the court directed the government to be transparent about leprosy and conduct periodic national surveys to gauge its detection rate. It should publish reports of the National Sample Survey on Leprosy conducted in 2010-2011.
• Both the Centre and States should embark on “regular and sustainable massive awareness campaigns” to educate the public about the Multi Drug Therapy (MDT) freely available at health centres to completely cure leprosy and dispel fear associated with the disease. The activities of the National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) must be given wide publicity.
• The court banned the use of “frightening” images of leprosy patients; instead it called for the use of “positive” photographs of those cured of leprosy in the campaigns.
• The Centre and States should ensure that leprosy patients, especially women, do not face any discrimination or isolation at both government and private hospitals. The government should also ensure that private and public schools do not discriminate against children hailing from leprosy-affected families. They should be given free education.
• Leprosy-affected persons should be given BPL cards. which would enable them to secure their right to food and be brought under the aegis of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, the Supreme Court ordered.

NACO releases HIV Estimations 2017 report

News

• India’s long battle against AIDS is not likely to end any time soon, if the latest figures released by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) is any indication.
• The data revealed that, as of 2017, there were still around 21.40 lakh people living with HIV in India, with the prevalence among adults stood at 0.22 per cent.

Findings:

• There were around 87,000 new HIV infections and over 69,000 AIDS-related deaths (ARDs) in 2017. Around 22,675 mothers needed Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
• India’s 2017 figures also do not show a significant positive shift from 2015, the previous year for which when such a survey had been carried out. In 2015, India had reported 86,000 new HIV infections. Of these, children (<15 years) accounted for 12 per cent (10,400) while the remaining (75,000) were adults (15+ years). In 2015, the total number of people living with HIV in India was estimated at 21.17 lakh, while the same figure was 22.26 lakh in 2007.
• The 2017 estimation report also indicates that there is no place for complacency as the country aims to achieve the ambitious goal of ending AIDS in India by 2030. It adds, however, that the impact of the HIV/AIDS control programme has been significant, with more than an 80 per cent decline in estimated new infections from the epidemic’s peak in 1995.
• The objective of HIV estimations is to provide updated information on the status of the HIV epidemic in India at the national and State/Union Territory level.
• Estimations of adult HIV prevalence, annual new infections (HIV incidence), AIDS-related mortality, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) needs are produced as outcomes of HIV estimations. The modelled estimates are needed because there is no direct reliable way of measuring these core indicators, which are used to track the epidemic and monitor and evaluate the response in countries around the world, noted the release.
• The HIV Estimations 2017 is the 14th round in the series of HIV-estimations under the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP). NACO undertakes HIV estimations biennially in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) National Institute of Medical Statistics (NIMS).
• The first round of HIV estimation in India was done in 1998.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

NASA to measure melting ice

News

• NASA is set to launch a satellite equipped with the most advanced laser instrument of its kind, to provide critical observations of how the Earth’s ice sheets, glaciers and sea ice are changing.

Beyond News

• Set to be launch on September 15, the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) will measure the average annual elevation change of land ice covering Greenland and Antarctica, capturing 60,000 measurements every second.
• ICESat-2 represents a major technological leap in the ability to measure changes in ice height.
• Its Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) measures height by timing how long it takes individual light photons to travel from the spacecraft to Earth and back.
• ATLAS will fire 10,000 times each second, sending hundreds of trillions of photons to the ground in six beams of green light.
• ICESat-2 will measure ice heights along the same path in the polar regions four times a year, providing seasonal ice elevation changes.

Pollution cools monsoon days, says study

News

• Increased emissions of aerosols into the atmosphere due to pollution are beginning to have a definite cooling effect of 1 degree C during the Indian summer monsoon period, a study has found.

Findings

• The increased cooling is seen during the day, while the night time temperature is increasing, thus shrinking the diurnal temperature difference. The diurnal temperature difference is what drives the convection process (where water evaporates and reaches the atmosphere as water vapour), and development of clouds.
• As diurnal temperature difference decreases, the lower layer of the atmosphere will reduce in height and come closer to the earth’s surface. This will cause more aerosols to get into the atmosphere, thus impacting the lower atmospheric turbulence, which may eventually affect the distribution of moisture and rainfall.
• The increased concentration of aerosols in the atmosphere also tends to change the shape and characteristics of rain-bearing clouds, leading to extreme rainfall events but weakened monsoon rainfall.
• The study found striking similarity between satellite data (2002-2016) and a global reanalysis modelled data that showed cloud structure being modified with increased aerosol emission.
• Rain-bearing clouds were found to increase in number and height when aerosol emission is higher. The clouds also tend to have a far higher number of ice particles that are smaller in size when aerosol loading is higher, thus reducing the efficiency of water droplet growth.

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