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Daily Current Capsules - 01st April 2020

Prelims Factoids
Tablighi Jamaat

Relevance IN - Prelims(about Tablighi Jamaat)
What's the NEWS
  • A religious congregation organised by the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi's Nizamuddin area has turned out to be the super-spreader of coronavirus in India.
Know! all about Tablighi Jamaat
  • Tablighi Jamaat literally the Outreach Society, is an Islamic missionary movement that focuses on urging Muslims to return to practising their religion during the lifetime of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and particularly in matters of ritual, dress and personal behaviour
  • The Tablighi Jamaat is a conservative Muslim organisation set up in 1926 by Maulana Muhammad Ilyas in Mewat (in present-day Haryana), and aims to spread religious knowledge among Muslims.
  • The Tablighi Jamaat, which translates to "society for spreading faith", is a global educational and missionary movement whose "primary purpose" is to encourage Muslims the world over to be religiously more observant.
  • It is currently operating in over 150 countries, including countries in Western Europe.
  • The movement is believed to have stemmed from the Deobandi brand (most commonly practised form of Islam in South Asia) of Hanafi Sunni school of jurisprudence.
  • The members consciously work to remain away from the gaze of the media.
  • They do not rely on donations and are largely financed by their senior members.
Prelims Factoids
Hydroxychloroquine
Relevance IN - Prelims (about Hydroxychloroquine + about Schedule drugs)
What's the NEWS
  • Hydroxychloroquine is now a schedule H1 drug, and can be sold on prescription only.
Know! more about Hydroxychloroquine
  • The sale of the drug from now on should be in accordance with the conditions for sale of drugs specified in Schedule H1 to the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945.
  • The Central Government is satisfied that the drug ‘Hydroxychloroquine' is essential to meet the requirements of emergency arising due to pandemic COVID-19 and in the public interest, it is necessary and expedient to regulate and restrict the sale and distribution of the drug
  • Hydroxychloroquine is a drug used to prevent or treat malaria, and one theory suggests it could prevent the novel coronavirus from entering cells
Know! the difference between Schedule H, Schedule X and Schedule H1 drugs
  • According to drug and cosmetic act in India, drugs are divided into different schedules.
Schedule H
  • Schedule H stands for drugs to be sold on prescription of registered medical practitioner. These drugs should be labelled with the symbol ‘Rx'
Schedule H1
  • Schedule H1 stands for drugs to be sold on prescription of registered medical practitioner. This schedule was included in 2013 to check the indiscriminate use of antibiotics, anti-TB and some other drugs in the country.
  • The package of the drugs will have a mandatory warning printed in a box with red colour border.
  • The chemist should maintain the list of the customer names and details of the doctor who prescribed it. The list should be maintained with 3 years of data.
Schedule X
  • Schedule X stands for narcotics and psychotropic drugs to be sold on prescription of registered medical practitioner.
Same rules are applied as per schedule H drugs.
  • The drug retailer has to preserve the copy of prescription for two years and the drugs should be labelled with the symbol ‘XRx'
Prelims Factoids
Genetic test and Serological test
Relevance IN - Prelims (about serological test and genetic test)
What's the NEWS
  • The Indian Council of Medical Research invited bids for an estimated 10 lakh antibody kits (for serological tests) for the diagnosis of COVID-19.
Know! about serological test and its benefits over genetic test
  • Viral infections are mainly identified by two kinds of tests- genetic and serological.
  • Genetic tests can identify infections that are active, but cannot be used to detect past infections.
  • To trace how infections like the novel coronavirus have spread so far, it is important to detect people who contracted the disease in the past and have recovered. This is what serological tests seek to determine.
Know! the difference between genetic and serological test
  • The genetic test is conducted on a swab collected from the back of the throat, a liquid sample from the lower respiratory tract, or a simple saliva sample.
  • Unlike genetic tests, which look for RNA in swab samples, serological tests work on antibodies in blood samples. Hence, they are also called ‘antibody tests'.
Prelims Factoids
Ministry of Tourism launches ‘Stranded in India' portal

Relevance IN - Prelims(about Stranded in India portal)
What's the NEWS
  • The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, with an aim to extend support to the foreign tourists who are stranded in India, has come up with a portal to disseminate information regarding the services that can be availed by foreign tourists who are stuck far away from their home land.
Know! more about the portal
  • The portal is titled ‘Stranded in India' and aims to act as a support network for foreign tourists stuck in various parts of the country.
  • The portal strandedinindia.com consists of information around Covid-19 helpline numbers and call centres that foreign tourists can reach out for help, information around Ministry of External Affairs control centers along with their contact information and information around state-based/regional tourism support infrastructure.
Prelims Factoids
Chinese govt recommends bear bile as cure for COVID-19
Relevance IN -Prelims( about ursodeoxycholic acid or ursodiol)
What's the NEWS
  • The Chinese government has suggested that bile extracted from bears could be a possible treatment for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
Know! more about it
  • The government has put out a list of medicines to treat COVID-19 that include both western and traditional Chinese medicine.
  • Among the ‘cures' for COVID-19 is ‘Tan Re Qing' that contains bear bile.
  • Bile is usually produced in the liver and stored in the gall bladder.
  • The Ursodeoxycholic acid in the bear bile can be used in the treatment of COVID-19.
  • Bear bile contains ursodeoxycholic acid or ursodiol, that is helpful in dissolving gallstones and treating liver disease.
  • Its use has been recorded in China for thousands of years and has continued into the present day
  • The process of extracting bile from live bears is painful and can cause agony to the animal

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