World Health Assembly 2019 to focus on meeting SDG goals

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) organised its 72nd World Health Assembly (WHA) focussing on the general theme "Universal health coverage: leaving no-one behind”.

72nd World Health Assembly meeting :

• The annual gathering, which will be held from May 20-28 in Geneva, Switzerland

• Universal Health Coverage is considered the umbrella target which would help the world meet other health targets such as reduction in child mortality, controlling epidemics and reducing deaths from air pollution.

• Transparency related to medicine prices, access to biotherapeutics and pandemic preparedness in context of Nagoya protocol are some of the issues that are likely to take center stage at the assembly this year.

• Another issue that is likely to be discussed is the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework which was adopted in 2011.

  • This framework was to guide virus sharing and benefit sharing in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity which gives a country right over its biological resources.

• High price of drugs is likely to be discussed in detail at the meeting as this impedes progress towards Universal Health Coverage.

  • Public health experts demand that the information on costs of manufacturing of medicines, vaccines and health technologies should be transparent ensuring that pharma companies do not make undue profits at the cost of patients.

World Health Assembly :

• The World Health Assembly (WHA) is the forum through which the World Health Organization (WHO) is governed by its 194 member states.

• It is the world’s highest health policy setting body and is composed of health ministers from member states.

• The members of the World Health Assembly generally meet every year in May in Geneva, the location of WHO Headquarters.

• The main functions of the World Health Assembly are to determine the policies of the Organization, appoint the Director-General, supervise financial policies, and review and approve the proposed programme budget.

                                                                                                                                               Source :- Down To Earth

Malaria-free status

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues related to Health.

Context :

•  The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Algeria and Argentina as malaria-free, with no recorded cases of indigenous transmission of the disease since 2013 and 2010 respectively.

More about the news :

• Algeria is the second country in the WHO African Region to be officially recognized as malaria-free, after Mauritius, which was certified in 1973.

• Argentina is the second country in the WHO Region of the Americas to be certified in 45 years, after Paraguay in June 2018.

• Algeria and Argentina reported their last cases of indigenous malaria in 2013 and 2010 respectively.

Criteria :

• WHO grants a certification of malaria elimination when a country has proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the chain of indigenous transmission has been interrupted nationwide for at least the previous three consecutive years.

• In addition, a national surveillance system capable of rapidly detecting and responding to any malaria cases must be operational, together with an effective programme to prevent re-establishment of the disease.

India’s Effort :

• The Government of India has developed a National Framework for Malaria Elimination (2016-2030) and a National Strategic Plan (NSP, 2017-2022) with the aim to eliminate malaria (zero indigenous cases) in all Category 1 and 2 districts by 2022.

National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016-2030

• India’s strategy for elimination of the disease by 2030.

• The framework has been developed with a vision to eliminate malaria from the country and contribute to improved health and quality of life and alleviation of poverty.

• The NFME document clearly defines goals, objectives, strategies, targets and timelines and will serve as a roadmap for advocating and planning malaria elimination in the country in a phased manner.

Goal :

• Eliminate malaria (zero indigenous cases) throughout the entire country by 2030; and

• Maintain malaria–free status in areas where malaria transmission has been interrupted and prevent re-introduction of malaria.

Objective :

• Eliminate malaria from all low (Category 1) and moderate (Category 2) endemic states/UTs (26) by 2022

• Reduce the incidence of malaria to less than 1 case per 1000 population in all States/UTs and the districts and malaria elimination in 31 states/UTs by 2024

• Interrupt indigenous transmission of malaria in all States/ UTs (Category 3) by 2027

• Prevent re-establishment of local transmission of malaria in areas where it has been eliminated and to maintain malaria-free status of the country by 2030.

                                                                                                                       Source :- The Hindu

U20 leaders call on G20 to accelerate SDG goals progress

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests

Context :

• Recently,Tokyo has hosted the second U20 Mayors Summit.

More about the news:

• Mayors of 30 major cities from across the world has urged the Global leaders to act fast on climate change, social inclusion and sustainable economic growth.

• The issues highlighted by the mayors and city governors will be represented in the United Nations-mandated sustainable development goals,the deadline of which is 2030.

• The mayors have also urged the G20 leaders to ensure greenhouse gas emissions reduce substantially by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050, ensure access to adequate housing to all populations.

U20 :

• Urban 20 (U20) is an initiative developed in 2017 under the leadership of the Mayor of Buenos Aires and Mayor of Paris, and convened by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) in collaboration with United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG).

• U20 seeks to develop a joint position and collective messages to inform and enrich the discussions of national leaders at the G20 Summit through unique urban perspectives.

• Urban 20 is composed of 25 global cities: Beijing, Berlin, City of Buenos Aires, Chicago, Durban, Hamburg, Jakarta, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, Milan, Montreal, Moscow, New York, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, São Paulo, Seoul, Sydney, Tokyo, and Tshwane.

• Urban 20, or U20, aims to tackle global challenges by leveraging the potential of cities as hubs of diversity and innovation.

                                                                                                                             Source :- Down To Earth

Huge Water Reservoir Found on Mars

GS PAPER - 03 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - Awareness in the field of Space.

Context :

• Scientists have discovered one of the largest water reservoirs on Mars, in the form of ice layers buried over a kilometre beneath the surface.

• Scientists have discovered one of the largest water reservoirs on Mars, in the form of ice layers buried over a kilometre beneath the surface

Key findings :

• The researchers found layers of sand and ice that were as much as 90% water in some places.

• The layers formed when ice accumulated at the poles during past ice ages on Mars.

• Each time the planet warmed, a remnant of the ice caps became covered by sand, which protected the ice from solar radiation and prevented it from dissipating into the atmosphere.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) :

• NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched August 12, 2005, is on a search for evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars for a long period of time.

• While other Mars missions have shown that water flowed across the surface in Mars' history, it remains a mystery whether water was ever around long enough to provide a habitat for life.

• It contains a host of scientific instruments such as cameras, spectrometers, and radar, which are used to analyze the landforms, stratigraphy, minerals, and ice of Mars.

                                                                                                               Source :- The Times Of India

Poshan Abhiyan scheme lags behind its target

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues related to Health ; poverty and hunger.

Context :

• A  recent study led by Akshay Swaminathan, from the Department of Statistics, Harvard University, titled ‘On Burden of child malnutrition in India-a view from parliamentary constituencies’, states that currently, stunting in children under 5 is 35.90 per cent.

Concern :

• The focus of the scheme was to reduce stunting in children aged between 0 and 6 years from 38.4 per cent to 25 per cent by 2022; but recent study says stunting in children under 5 is 35.90 per cent.

• This clearly shows that the aim of Poshan Abhiyaan is yet to be met, and there are only two more years to achieve the same.

Issues :

• Misuse of funds has been one of the factors which brought out differences between states and, sometimes, within states.

• Further, household poverty levels are a prominent factor for prevalence of malnutrition in certain states.

  • Household poverty has been shown to be a significant risk factor for stunting, wasting and underweight in India.

• The Study highlights intra-state variation — for example Karnataka, Odisha and Maharashtra have PCs in the top two (regions doing extremely well) and bottom two (regions which performing poorly) across various indicators.

Way Forward :

• The government has to focus on a prior multilevel analysis of household poverty and health spending at the local level.

• The government should now seriously deliberate on the focus areas as some states are doing extremely well while others are not.

                                                                                                                  Source :- Down To Earth

Pakistan successfully test-fires ballistic missile Shaheen-II capable of hitting India

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS -  India and its neighborhood- relations

Context :

• Pakistan successfully test-fired surface-to-surface ballistic missile Shaheen-II, capable of hitting targets as far as 1,500 kilometers away, bringing major Indian cities under its range.

Shaheen - 2 :

• Shaheen-II Missile is capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads up to a range of 1,500 kilometers.

• Shaheen-II is a highly capable missile which fully meets Pakistan's strategic needs towards maintenance of desired deterrence stability in the region.

More about the news:

• Further,Pakistan has already test-fired the Shaheen-III nuclear-capable missile with a range of up to 1,700 miles enabling it to strike all corners of India and reach deep into the Middle East including Israel.

                                                                                                                      Source :- The Hindu

China continues to use ozone depleting CFC-11 in violation of Montreal Protocol

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Context :

• According to the research published in the journal Nature , China has been illegally emitting Trichlorofluoromethane or CFC-11 — the banned ozone-depleting chemical .

Key Findings of the study :

• CFC-11 was phased out under the 1987 Montreal Protocol.

  • Despite being the signatory to the Montreal Protocol, and agreeing to phase out production of CFC-11 in 2010, China continued to emit the polluting gas.

• The study found that Emissions of CFC-11 were on the rise since 2013. In fact, the emissions increased by 25 per cent since 2012.

• Between 2008 and 2012, eastern China emitted an average of about 6,400 metric tonnes of CFC-11 per year. That number increased to about 13,400 metric tonnes per year from 2014 to 2017.

• Since 2013, about 7,000 more metric tonnes of the banned CFC-11 has been emitted each year from eastern China.which account for at least 40 to 60 per cent of the global increase last year.

Reason  :

• China has the world’s largest polyurethane foam market, accounting for about 40 per cent of the world’s consumption.

• Chinese foam manufacturers have been using CFC-11 illegally to save on the higher cost of alternatives, such as hydrochloro-fluorocarbons like HCFC-141b, which is to be phased out in China by 2026.

CFC-11 concentration :

• The hole in the ozone is on the path to recovery according to the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO’s) assessment; and reduction in the atmospheric concentration of CFC-11 has made the second-largest contribution to the decline in the total atmospheric concentration of ozone-depleting chlorine since the 1990s.

  • But this gas still contributes one-quarter of all chlorine reaching the stratosphere, and a timely recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer depends on a sustained decline in CFC-11 concentrations.

• Continued success of the Montreal Protocol in protecting stratospheric ozone depends on continued compliance and China must adhere to it.

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