17th Aug Current Affairs News Analysis | Prelims & Mains 2020

Dear Aspirants

IASbhai Current Affairs News Analysis | Prelims & Mains 2020 is an initiative to dilute major articles from leading Newspapers in India which are most relevant to UPSC preparation –‘THE HINDU, LIVEMINT , INDIAN EXPRESS’ and help millions of readers who find difficulty in answer writing and making notes everyday. Hence we choose articles on daily basis and analyse them with respect to UPSC PRELIMS 2020.

“Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.” –Theodore N. Vail

HIGHLIGHT INFO:

ORANGE COLOUR: Important for Prelims.

RED COLOUR: Important for Mains.

BLACK COLOUR: Must Read !

BLUE COLOUR : Important Links/Survey.

PINK COLOUR: Reports/Themes/Summits.

Today's Must Read Articles :

DELAYED EARTH OVERSHOOT DAY

COVID-19 : CHANGING BRAINS

SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION

Page Contents:

BRICS Anti-Drug Working Group

HEADLINES:

4th Meeting of the BRICS Anti-Drug Working Group held

WHY IN NEWS:

Communiqué adopted reaffirming commitment of the five member states to the International Anti-drug conventions

MINISTRY? :-Ministry of Home Affairs

SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 2 : Last BRICS Summit : BRICS

ISSUE:

Misuse of darknet and other advanced technologies for drug trafficking was one of the key focal areas of the meeting.

BRICS ANTI-DRUG WORKING GROUP

The 4^th Session of the BRICS Anti-Drug Working Group comprising of Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa and India was held this week.

FOCUS

India called for nodal points to enable real-time information sharing among BRICS nations

Meeting focused on misuse of darknet and other advanced technologies for drug trafficking.

VENUE

This year’s session, held over video conference on August 12, 2020, was chaired by Russia.

FRUITFUL EXCHANGE OF OPINIONS ON

The drug situation in the BRICS states.
The international and regional trends of illegal trafficking in narcotic drugs.
Psychotropic substances and their precursors.

DELIBERATIONS

The impact of various internal and external factors on the situation took place during the summit.
The common points emerged during the discussions include need for real time information sharing among the member states.

The need to curb increased drug trafficking through maritime routes.

IASbhai WINDUP:

BRICS is an informal group of states comprising the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa.
The growing economic might of BRICS countries, their significance as one of the main driving forces of global economic development.
Among other areas of collaboration, matters pertaining to drug trafficking is an important area of cooperation among the BRICS member states.

SOURCES:THE HINDU & PIB | 17th Aug Current Affairs News Analysis

T cell immunity

HEADLINES:

T cell immunity prevents recurrent severe COVID-19 disease

WHY IN NEWS:

Study shows previously unanticipated degree of population-level immunity against COVID-19

Immune cells: SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells are only now being characterised from COVID-19 patients.

SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3: Science

ISSUE:

Natural exposure or infection with the novel coronavirus may “prevent recurrent episodes of severe COVID-19”.

The study published by a team led by Marcus Bugger from Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

T CELL RESPONSE

This is because, once infected with SARS-CoV-2, the immune system elicits “robust, broad and highly functional memory T cell responses”.
SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells even in family members who have been exposed to the virus but have tested negative on antibody blood tests.

ROBUST RESPONSES

All categories of people — recovered from moderate or severe COVID-19 disease.

People exhibited “robust memory T cell responses months after infection.

This indicates a “previously unanticipated degree of population-level immunity against COVID-19”.
Studies undertaken in rhesus macaques had found that once infected, the animals were fully protected from reinfection.

IASbhai WINDUP:

This implies that seroprevalence as an indicator may underestimate the extent of immunity in the population.
“The dissociation of antibody (its absence) and a robust T cell response is noteworthy.

SOURCES:THE HINDU & PIB | 17th Aug Current Affairs News Analysis

SalivaDirect

HEADLINES:

U.S. FDA nod for rapid, inexpensive saliva test

WHY IN NEWS:

It assures high accuracy in detecting the presence of virus

SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3: Diseases

ISSUE:

A new, rapid diagnostic test for the novel coronavirus that uses saliva samples was granted an emergency use authorisation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

SALIVADIRECT

DEVELOPED BY

The inexpensive test, called SalivaDirect, developed by a team from the Yale School of Public Health.

FEATURES

It has high sensitivity and can detect the virus even when the number of virus copies in the saliva sample is as low as 6-12 copies per microlitre.
The sensitivity of the new test was about 93%, according to a preprint posted on medRxiv.

The new saliva test would increase efficiency and avoid shortage of crucial test components such as reagents.

Collecting and testing saliva samples involves three steps —

Collecting saliva without preservative buffers
Proteinase K treatment and heat inactivation
Dualplex RT-qPCR virus detection.

17th Aug Current Affairs News Analysis

The study also found less variability in results with the self-sample collection of saliva.

IASbhai WINDUP:

OPEN SOURCE PROTOCOL

The testing protocol has been provided as an “open source”.
Thus, SalivaDirect will be free to use by diagnostic labs.
NGOs may apply for a licence.
The researchers validated SalivaDirect using several common and available reagents.
They claim the test is inexpensive costing between $1.29-4.37 per sample.

SOURCES:THE HINDU & PIB | 17th Aug Current Affairs News Analysis

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