Daily Current Capsules - 5^th JUNE 2019
National
Kerala student infected with Nipah virus
Relevance IN - Prelims ( all about Nipah Virus)


What's the NEWS

• A 23-year-old college student in Kerala is confirmed to have been infected with Nipah virus.
• The deadly Nipah Virus has resurfaced in Kerala, after a 23-year-old Kerala student, admitted in a private hospital in Ernakulam, was tested positive of the virus.
• Kerala's health minister K K Shylaja confirmed that the youth was infected with Nipah virus, after Pune-based National Institute of Virology, which tested the man's blood samples and confirmed the presence of the virus.
• The youth studied in a college in Thodupuzha in Idukki and had stayed in Thrissur recently. He was hospitalized with a high fever in Kochi 10 days ago.

Know! all about Nipah Virus

• The first case of Nipah virus was detected in Kerala in 2018 when the state Health Department had confirmed Nipah virus (NiV) infection after testing the blood and body fluid samples of two persons who had died of viral fever in Kozhikode district of the state.
• The virus had ended up claiming 17 lives in 2018 including a nurse who was treating one of the virus-infected patients.
• Nipah virus, which spreads from human to human and has a mortality rate of 70% and there is no vaccine to prevent it. Hence, Nipah Virus is not curable as of now.

Know! more about Nipah Virus

• Nipah virus (NiV) infection is a newly-emerging zoonosis (a disease which can be transmitted to humans from animals) that causes severe disease in both animals and humans.
• The natural host of the virus is fruit bats of the Pteropodidae Family, Pteropus genus.
• According to WHO, Nipah Virus was first identified during an outbreak of disease that took place in Kampung Sungai Nipah, Malaysia in 1998.
• It first appeared in domestic pigs and has been found among several species of domestic animals including dogs, cats, goats, horses and sheep. The infection is also known to affect human beings.
• The organism which causes Nipah Virus encephalitis is an RNA or Ribonucleic acid virus of the family Paramyxoviridae, genus Henipavirus, and is closely related to Hendra virus.
• However, in subsequent NiV outbreaks, there were no intermediate hosts. In 2004, in Bangladesh, humans infected with Nipah Virus as a result of consuming date palm sap that had been contaminated by infected fruit bats. Human-to-human transmission has also been documented, including in a hospital setting in India.
• The disease spreads through fruit bats or ‘flying foxes,' of the genus Pteropus, who are natural reservoir hosts of the Nipah and Hendra viruses.
• The virus is present in bat urine and potentially, bat faeces, saliva, and birthing fluids. Presumably, the first incidence of Nipah virus infection occurred when pigs in Malaysian farms came in contact with the bats who had lost their habitats due to deforestation. Furthermore, transmission between farms may be due to fomites or carrying the virus on clothing, equipment, boots, and vehicles.
• The Nipah virus is a zoonotic virus, which means it spreads to humans from either air or through saliva. Doctors are theorising that it is not an airborne disease, but one that spreads through direct contact; either with the bats or through consuming fruit that bats have nibbled on.

Miscellaneous Factoids
‘UdChalo' to give a new lease of life to wounded soldiers
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the UdChalo travel portal)
What's the NEWS

• In a bid to make wounded soldiers, who are now confined to wheelchairs, self-reliant, an initiative ‘UdChalo' is all set to take off at the Army's Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre (PRC) in Punjab's Mohali.

Know! more about Ud chalo app

• ‘UdChalo' is a travel portal, that caters for the personal travel of the military and paramilitary forces personnel by aggregating defence fares and getting exclusive discounts.
• The PRC has joined hands with UdChalo with an aim to empower the
• It is a life re-lived. The initiative is unique and has given a new lease of life of these soldiers who are now confined to wheelchairs
• PRC provides institutionalised care to soldiers, who are wounded in military or insurgency operations and can't adequately provide for themselves the constant medical care associated with quadriplegia and paraplegia.
• PRC provides them vocational training so that after leaving the institute they can earn their livelihood.

Operation Blizzard

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about operation Blizzard)
What's the NEWS

• Police have rescued thousands of live snakes, lizards and geckos and stopped some 20 crocodiles and alligators from becoming high-end fashion products, Europol said on Monday, after a coordinated global police operation.
• During "Operation Blizzard", police from 22 countries, including the European Union, Australia, South Africa and the U.S., targeted the illegal reptile trade between mid-April to May 22. Twelve suspects were arrested.
• Globally, police seized 4,419 live animals including 2,703 turtles and tortoises, 1059 snakes, 512 lizards and geckos and 20 crocodiles and alligators.
• Authorities also confiscated 152 handbags, wallets, watchstraps, medicines and taxidermies

International Organisations
Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2019
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about GES 2019 ) Mains ( GS III sustainable development and environment conservation + GS II important international institutions)

What's the NEWS

• The Netherlands and the United States are jointly organising the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), to be held at the World Forum in The Hague on 4 and 5 June 2019.
• The Summit will bring together some 2,000 entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and other participants from around the world.

Know! all about the Summit

• The ninth edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit is all set to roll out in on Tuesday (June 4), with a number of entrepreneurs from across the world, including 27 from India, gathering to share their insights and showcase their ideas on a world stage.
• The Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2019 is being hosted by the governments of the United States of America and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and is the first edition of the event to be held in the European Union.
• Overall, the summit will feature about 1,200 entrepreneurs from across 140 countries, and will also provide an avenue for these entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas and work to 300 investors.
• The key focus areas of the summit include the five global challenges surrounding water, agriculture, healthcare, connectivity, and energy.

Know! more about GES

• The GES is all about encouraging, fostering, and promoting the idea of entrepreneurship and the value and ideals that go along with that
• Fostering the entrepreneurial spirit with young, innovative, creative people who just have a passion for being successful but also a passion for doing good.
• The GES 2017 event in India in November of that year in Hyderabad hosted more than 1,500 entrepreneurs from around the world, and focussed on the issue of ‘Women First, Prosperity for All'. It was the first edition of the GES to take place in South Asia, and more than 50% of the delegates at the event were women.
• Twenty seven Indian firms are taking part in GES 2019 across the subject areas of agriculture (3), water (8), energy (6), healthcare (3), and connectivity (7).
• GES offers a unique, international platform for companies to demonstrate their innovative solutions to major challenges facing the world today; in order to take their ideas and innovations to the next level, they not only need investments, but often adapted regulations as well.
• Central to GES 2019 is ‘The Future Now' - the question what is needed in order to sustainably keep the world provided of Agriculture/Food, Connectivity, Energy, Health, and Water.

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