IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

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India gets its first national essential diagnostics list

News

• India has got its first National Essential Diagnostics List (NEDL) finalised by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Aim: To bridge the current regulatory system’s gap that do not cover all the medical devices and in-vitro diagnostic device (IVD).

National Essential Diagnostics List

• The current system is equipped to manage only the few notified devices.
• With this, India has become the first country to compile such a list that would provide guidance to the government for deciding the kind of diagnostic tests that different healthcare facilities in villages and remote areas require.
• The list is meant for facilities from village till the district level.
• WHO released first edition of essential diagnostics list (EDL) in May 2018. Even though WHO’s EDL acts as a reference point for development of national EDL, India’s diagnostics list customised and prepared as per landscape of India’s health care priorities.
• NEDL builds upon the Free Diagnostics Service Initiative and other diagnostics initiatives of the Health Ministry to provide an expanded basket of tests at different levels of the public health system.
• Implementation of NEDL would enable improved health care services delivery through evidence-based care, improved patient outcomes and reduction in out-of-pocket expenditure; effective utilisation of public health facilities; effective assessment of disease burden, disease trends, surveillance, and outbreak identification; and address antimicrobial resistance crisis

Key role

• Diagnostics serve a key role in improving health and quality of life and the ICMR has noted that the key challenges anticipated during implementation of the National EDL include Adoption by States and harmonisation with local standard diagnostic protocols and treatment guidelines, provision of requisite infrastructure, processes and human resources, ensuring quality of tests including EQAS and quality control and adequate utilisation of EDL tests for making informed decisions for treatment protocols.
• In India, diagnostics (medical devices and in vitro diagnostics) follow a regulatory framework based on the drug regulations under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Drugs and Cosmetics Rules 1945.
• Diagnostics are regulated under the regulatory provisions of the Medical Device Rules, 2017.

Source: The Hindu

Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman’ Awards:

News: President Awards the Certificate of Honour and Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman for the Year 2019.

Beyond News:  Introduced in the year 2002.
•The Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman distinction is conferred on persons in recognition of their substantial contribution in the field of Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Pali, Prakrit, Classical Oriya, Classical Kannada, Classical Telugu and Classical Malayalam.
•Eligibility: Given to selected young scholars in the age group of 30 to 45 years.

Who was Maharshi Badrayan?

•He was an Indian philosopher about whom almost no personal details are reliably known.
•Badarayana is regarded as having written the basic text of the Vedanta system, the edāntasūtrak.a. Brahmasūtra.
•He is thus considered the founder of the Vedānta system of philosophy.

Source: PIB India

U.N Security Council meeting on Kashmir: India slams international interference

News

• India’s ambassador to the United Nations slammed international interference over Kashmir, after the Security Council held its first formal meeting on the disputed region in almost 50 years.

U.N Security Council meeting

• Matters relating to Article 370 on Kashmir are entirely an internal matter of India and have no external ramifications, India’s ambassador to the United Nations 
• India’s ambassador to the United Nations said that some were trying to project an “alarmist situation” in Kashmir to propagate their ideology, referring to Pakistan.
• The Security Council took no action during the closed door meeting, which was called for by China and Pakistan.

Source: The Hindu

Everest climbers set to face new rules

News

• In an effort to address deadly human traffic jams on Mount Everest and weed out inexperienced climbers, Nepali officials formally proposed new safety rules that could significantly reduce the number of permits issued for the world’s highest peak.

New safety rules

• Under the measures, climbers would have to prove that they have scaled another major peak, and tourism companies would be required to have at least three years’ experience organizing high-altitude expeditions before they can lead climbers on Everest.
• To discourage cost-cutting that can put climbers’ lives at risk, clients of expedition companies would have to prove, before setting out, that they had paid at least $35,000 for the expedition.

Source: The Hindu

 

India suspends Thar Link Express

News

• India suspended weekly Thar Link Express which connects Jodhpur in Rajasthan to Karachi in Pakistan.
• Thar Link Express runs on the Indian side between Bhagat Ki Kothi railway station in Jodhpur to Munabao.

Source: The Hindu

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Microplastics in Arctic snow point to widespread air contamination

News

• Minute microplastic particles have been detected in the Arctic and the Alps, carried by the wind and later washed out in the snow, according to a study that called for urgent research to assess the health risks of inhalation.

Findings

• Every year, several million tonnes of plastic litter course through rivers and out to the oceans, where they are gradually broken down into smaller fragments through the motion of waves and the ultraviolet light of the sun.
• The new study found that microplastic particles can be transported tremendous distances through the atmosphere.
• These particles, defined as shreds less than five millimeters in length, are later washed out of the air by precipitation, particularly snow.
• It’s readily apparent that the majority of the microplastic in the snow comes from the air.
• Scientists used an infrared imaging technique to analyse samples collected between 2015 and 2017 from floating ice in the Fram Strait off Greenland, visiting five floes by helicopters or dinghies.
• Concentrations of the microparticles in the Arctic were significantly lower than in the European sites, but still substantial.

Source: The Hindu

New drug-resistant TB medicine

News

• Treating drug-resistant tuberculosis multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) got a shot in the arm when the S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new drug Pretomanid.

Pretomanid

• Pretomanid is only the third new anti-TB drug approved for use by FDA in more than 40 years.
• Pretomanid drug is expected to be available in the U.S. by the end of this year.
• The duration of treatment for drug-resistant TB can be drastically cut from 18-24 months to just six-nine months when pretomanid drug is used along with two already approved drugs bedaquiline and linezolid.
• The all-oral, three-drug regimen can also vastly improve the treatment success rate and potentially decrease the number of deaths due to better adherence to treatment.
• According to the WHO, the treatment success in MDR-TB patients is about 54%, while it is just 30% in the case of XDR-TB patients.
• Treatment success in XDR-TB patients depends on many other factors the extent of the drug resistance, the severity of the disease, whether the patient’s immune system is weakened, and adherence to treatment.
• As per the World Health Organization’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2018, an estimated 4.5 lakh people across the world have MDR-TB and nearly 37,500 people have XDR-TB. India has 24% of MDR-TB cases in the world.
• By the end of 2017, XDR-TB had been reported from 127 countries, including India.
• Pretomanid drug along with bedaquiline and linezolid is meant for treating adults with XDR-TB.
• The three-drug regimen is meant only for treating pulmonary TB and should not be used for treating extra-pulmonary TB, drug-sensitive or latent TB.

Source: The Hindu

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