• The Lower House of Nepal’s Parliament on Saturday unanimously voted for the Second Constitution Amendment Bill, which guarantees legal status for the new political map of the country that includes part of Indian territory in Uttarakhand.

NOT TENABLE: INDIA

• “The artificial enlargement of claims is not based on historical fact or evidence and is not tenable.
• It is also violative of our current understanding to hold talks on outstanding boundary issues,”.
• The territorial dispute stems from the fact that Nepal claims the land to the east of river Kali, which forms the country’s western border.

• India opposes the notion and says the origin of the river is much further down, which reduces Nepal’s territorial demand.

• “Dispersal of the strains from India was noted to neighbouring and distant countries” such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and China.
• The team studied newly sequenced chikungunya viruses isolated during outbreaks that happened between 2014 and 2018.
• During these years, the virus showed activity in India.
• Karnataka, Maharashtra and New Delhi accounted for a majority of the cases.

INDIAN OCEAN LINEAGE

• The whole-genome sequencing study revealed that the isolates belonged to the Indian subcontinent sub-lineage of the Indian Ocean lineage.
• The Indian Ocean lineage is a subgroup within the East Central South African genotype.
• It was responsible for the resurgence in the epidemic on La Reunion island during 2004-2005.

SPREAD FROM CLUSTERS

• Study based on the genome sequences over the period from 2005 to 2018, showed persistent global transmissions from India.
• The strains  have spread to China, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Southeast Asian countries in mid-2006.
• Chikungunya sequences revealed indigenous evolution in India at least at three time points over the period 2005-2018

The trial investigators found that there was no significant benefit in mortality reduction in the intervention group, which was the primary objective.

• The RECOVERY trial began in March.
• It is a dynamic trial assessing five candidate drugs and convalescent plasma therapy for treating COVID-19 in patients in U.K. hospitals.
• The trial has enrolled over 11,000 patients.

NO BENEFICIAL EFFECTS

• It then came to light that the drug did not have the desired beneficial effects.
• “This concluded that there is no beneficial effect of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalised with COVID-19.
• The researchers found that there was “no significant difference in the primary endpoint of 28-day mortality”.

OUTCOMES MEASURED

• The primary outcome tested was reduction in all-cause mortality within 28 days of randomisation.
• The secondary outcomes measured were to assess any reduction in duration of hospital stay and need for and duration of ventilator or ECMO within 28 days and up to six months after randomisation.
• “These data convincingly rule out any meaningful mortality benefit of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalised with COVID-19,”