General Awareness

GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION - June 2021

Jun 2021

Jul 19, 2021

China Reports First Human Death From Monkey B Virus

China has reported its first human infection with Monkey B Virus (BV) and subsequent death. A Beijing-based veterinary surgeon was infected with the virus after he dissected two dead monkeys in early March, according to China CDC Weekly.
The 53-year-old veterinarian started experiencing nausea and vomiting and a month later, fever and neurological symptoms followed. He visited several hospitals but eventually died on May 27, China CDC Weekly revealed.
Around mid-April, researchers collected cerebrospinal fluid from the patient for next-generation sequencing and the readings suggested possible alphaherpesvirus infection. They also collected several specimens including blister fluid, blood, nasal swab, throat swab, and plasma to further identify the etiological agent.

Jul 18, 2021

Stopping 'Death Signal': Scientists Look to Repair Hearts Using Deadly Spider Venom

A group of Australian scientists are looking to halt the harmful effects of heart attack by using the venom of one of the world's deadliest spiders.
The researchers have developed a drug candidate from a molecule found in the venom of the Fraser Island funnel-web spider to stop the "death signal" sent by the heart that leads to cardiac arrest.
The development of experimental medicine, which has only been tested in the lab so far, has been led by Dr Nathan Palpant and Professor Glenn King from The University of Queensland and Professor Peter Macdonald from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.
Explaining the 'death signal', Dr Palpant said that the heart attack causes a reduction in blood flow to the heart which subsequently results in a lack of oxygen to the heart muscle.

HIV 'Significant' Independent Risk Factor for Severe, Critical Covid-19

The World Health Organization warned that the human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV), which causes AIDS, is a "significant independent risk factor" for severe and critical cases of Covid-19 infection.
"A new WHO report confirms that HIV infection is a significant independent risk factor for both severe/ critical Covid-19 presentation at hospital admission and in-hospital mortality," the WHO said in a statement.
Nearly a quarter of the people (23.1% to be exact), who were infected with HIV and hospitalised for Covid-19, lost their lives, the global health body noted in the report, based on the clinical surveillance data from 37 countries about the risk for people living with HIV (PLHIV) admitted to hospital for Covid-19.

Jul 14, 2021

Bihar had Maximum Deaths due to Lightning Strikes since 2019

India's second annual Lightning Report was published. According to it, lightning in India has become the biggest cause of death by forces of nature.
On July 11, 2021 lightning strikes killed about 70 people in different parts of India, including Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
As per the report, Bihar has reported most deaths because of lightning. In between April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021 about 401 deaths were reported.

Jul 13, 2021

Mixing and matching Covid-19 vaccines 'dangerous trend': WHO's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan

The World Health Organization's (WHO's) chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan warned against mixing and matching of Covid-19 vaccines by different manufacturers for the first and second doses, calling it a "dangerous trend" and saying that there was a lack of data about the impact of the process.
"There are people who are thinking about mixing and matching. We receive a lot of queries from people who say they have taken one [dose] and are planning to take another one (doses). It's a little bit of a dangerous trend here. We are in a data-free, evidence-free zone as far as mix and match," Swaminathan said in an online briefing.
Mixing and matching of Covid-19 vaccines is a method of immunisation using two doses of the shot from different manufacturers.
Most vaccines currently in use, including those of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, University of Oxford-AstraZeneca, Bharat Biotech as well as the Russian Sputnik V, are all required to be administered in two doses with the prescribed intervals between the shots differing for each vaccine. Sputnik V also has a single-dose vaccine named Sputnik V Lite and the jab by Johnson & Johnson is a single-dose vaccine too.

Jul 12, 2021

UP CM Yogi Adityanath Unveils new Population Policy

The Uttar Pradesh government released the new population policy for 2021-2030 on the occasion of World Population Day. In the new population policy, a target has been set to bring the birth rate to 2.1 per thousand population by 2026 and to 1.9 by 2030.
The state's total fertility rate is 2.7 percent currently.
While unveiling the policy at the inauguration event, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that there should be a gap between two children in order to control the population in the state.
The unveiling of the policy comes days after a draft of the population control bill was put up on the state law commission website.
He further said that an increasing population was a 'hurdle in development' and that more efforts are needed to control it.
"Across the world, from time to time, concerns have been expressed that increasing population can be a hurdle in development, and for the past four decades discussions on it are going on. Population growth is also related to poverty. Every community has been taken care of in Population Policy 2021-2030," Adityanath said.

Cuba develops the World's first Conjugate Vaccine for COVID-19

Cuba's State-run corporation, BioFarma, said that its indigenously produced Soberana 2 vaccine was 91.2% efficacious in phase-3 trials. This follows closely on an announcement that another of its vaccines, Abdala, had reported an efficacy of 92.8% in late stage trials.
The greater-than-90% efficacy puts them in a select league; however, unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines that had reported an efficacy of over 90%, both the Soberana and Abdala are three-shot vaccines.
Both are subunit vaccines, meaning that a part of the virus forms the antigen and is hitched on to another construct. In Abdala the spike protein of the coronavirus is combined with a chemically manufactured adjuvant, whereas in Soberana 2, the spike protein is chemically linked to the tetanus toxoid, making it a conjugate vaccine. The design and manufacturing allows the vaccine to be stored in regular refrigeration settings of 2–8 degree Celsius.

Share on

TCY Analytics (View Subscription Plans)

Subscribe to GK Updates

I want to receive

GK Tags

October GK, September GK, August GK, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, ENVIRONMENT, BUSINESS AND ECONOMY, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, SPORTS, NATIONAL AFFAIRS, DEFENCE, PERSONS IN NEWS, DAYS AND EVENTS, AWARDS AND HONOURS, GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND SCHEMES, GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION, ART AND CULTURE, BOOKS AND AUTHORS, TOURISM AND HOTEL INDUSTRY AWARENESS, ART AND CULTURE, LAW AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Start Discussion

On any topic

Take Tests

Compiled from GK updates

Login

Sign Up

Forgot Password

Download TCY App

Unlock All Services and Enjoy The Premium Benefits

US$ 10

US$ 13

US$ 15

US$ 17

US$ 19

US$ 20

US$ 21

US$ 22

US$ 23

US$ 24

US$ 25

US$ 26