Most Probable topic for UPSC Prelim 2020

Most Probable topic for UPSC Prelim 2020 : 25 June 2019

An Ebola cure may also protect against Nipah Virus

                                   The only current treatment for Nipah Virus infection is a monoclonal antibody which is still experimental.

# Ebola and Nipah Virus belongs to different viral families but Remdesivir (anti-viral dug), made by Gilead Science and also known as GS-5734 appears effective against both.

# It is also effective against Respiratory Syncytial Virus, which infect children all over the world.

# In Mice or cells cultivated in the laboratory, the drug has also shown some effectiveness against two other pandemic threats - Lassa Fever and MERS Corona Virus.

# The outer shell of both the Viruses are different but their polymerases (the genome copying enzymes) that Remedesivir targets are similar.

# Nipah Virus, which causes encephalitis and pneumonia, is lethal in about 70% of cases and can be caught from animals or transmitted between people.

# The above study is done jointly by the NIAID and the Center for disease control and prevention.

A CAPSULE to fight quacks in Kerala

Kerala Agricultural Minister V.S Sunil Kumar was scheduled to open a hospital in Thrissur on June 6, that offered a mixture of "Traditional Indian Medicine, Homeopathy, Traditional Native Medicine, Naturopathy, German, Korean and Chinese treatment methods".

# In the forefront of the protests were activists of CAPSULE (Campaign Against Pseudo Science Using Law and Ethics), an initiative of Kerala Sasthra Sahatiya Parishad (KSSP).

# The idea of CAPSULE was raised after a group of social activists launched a legal battle against a doctor who gave an advertisement in the major newspaper claiming to cure of Diabetes, Cancer and Thyroid problem.

# Section 3 and 4 of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act 1954, also prevent advertisement of Medical Treatment or Medicine that claim to cure a particular diseases.

# CAPSULE is working in association with organisations such as The Indian Medical Association and the Ayurveda Medical Association of India.

Mutation that Protects against HIV raises a death rate

The gene called "CCR5" when it works normally, it lets certain cells of the immune system displays a protein on the surface.

# HIV has co-opted that protein to use as a doorway to infect those cells.

# The mutation prevents the protein from appearing and so reduces the risk of HIV infection.

# The tinkering with gene may cause problems and reduces the life span.

# Participants with the mutation in both copies had a death rate about 20% higher than that of the other.

Budget Maximizing model in economy

 This refers to an economic model which tries to depict the typical behaviour of our Bureaucrats who works with the government.

# The government Bureaucrats, according to this model,will constantly tries to expand the amount of money and other resources that are under his control.

# The greater the amount of resources under his control, greater the chance of him wielding power over people who are dependent on this resources.

# The Budget Maximizing model of Bureaucrats behaviour  is first proposed by American Economist William Niskanen in 1968, in paper "The Peculiar Economy of Bureaucracy".