Disease, Health, Polio - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: Pulse Polio programme 2017

Explanation:
To prevent polio from a few countries, President Pranab Mukherjee launched the pulse polio programme for 2017.

He launched it by administering polio drops on Saturday to children below five years at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The programme will cover 17 crore children aged under five years to maintain the country's 'polio-free' status.

Mukherjee launched the countrywide programme on the eve of the National Immunisation Day.

Health Minister J P Nadda and Ministers of State for Health Anupriya Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste were present during the event.

As the risk of importation remains from remaining three countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria) where polio virus is still circulating, the need still persists for the country to maintain the population immunity.

Also needed is sensitive surveillance till global polio eradication happens,.

Polio-free certification of the entire South-East Asia Region of World Health Organisation, including India, on March 27, 2014 is commendable.

ANSWER: Acute Flaccid Paralysis

Explanation:

• India continues to maintain a highly sensitive surveillance system for polio
• All cases of paralysis with sudden onset in children up to 15 years (which is called Acute Flaccid Paralysis or AFP) are picked up by the polio surveillance network.
• Each of these cases is followed up and their stool samples tested for poliovirus in WHO accredited laboratories. In addition, sewage samples are collected from over 30 sites spread across the country for poliovirus detection at regular intervals.
• The term acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) is often used to describe a sudden onset, as might be found with polio.
• AFP is the most common sign of acute polio, and used for surveillance during polio outbreaks. AFP is also associated with a number of other pathogenic agents including enteroviruses, echoviruses, West Nile virus, and adenoviruses, among others.
• There have been some media reports that polio virus (P2 strain) has resurfaced in India for the first time in 5 years. However, it is not true as detected polio virus strain is vaccine derived poliovirus (VDPV) in a sewage sample.
• The detection of vaccine derived polio virus (VPDV) does not change the polio free status. It only indicates the robustness of the surveillance system and willingness of the country to detect any kind of polio virus even from the environment (sewage).
• Vaccine derived polioviruses are rare strain of the polioviruses that have genetically mutated from the strain contained in the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV).

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
The health ministry on June 15 reiterated India continues to be polio free as it has eradicated wild polio virus and no such virus was detected for over five years now.

• This came in the wake of reports about wild polio virus (P2 strain) being found in a Hyderabad drain.
• The ministry said it was a vaccine derived virus and does not change the polio-free status of India.
• However, as a precautionary measure, the ministry will hold a special immunisation drive in the high-risk areas of Telangana.
• Vaccine derived polio virus are rare strain of the polio viruses that have genetically mutated from the strain contained in the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV).

ANSWER: Both

Explanation:
- India was declared polio free by WHO in 2014.
- India has been polio free since January 2011. India embarked on the programme to eradicate polio 19 years ago in 1995.
- Inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) injection which uses killed polio viruses, will be used alongside the oral polio vaccine (OPV).
- Immunisation using IPV will be restricted to Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
- Live viruses used in a weakened form can turn virulent, spread within communities and cause polio in unprotected children.
- IPV aims to prevent vaccine caused polio cases.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
IPV has been introduced along with oral polio vaccine. It will first be introduced in 6 states namely Assam, Gujarat, Punjab, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. IPV injection will be given to children below one year of age along with the third dose of the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) at the routine immunisation sessions free of cost.

ANSWER: All

Explanation:
- India was certified a Guinea worm disease free country in February 2000 by the World Health Organization.
- The national guinea worm eradication programme was launched in 1983.
- Guinea worm disease is also known as dracunculiasis, which in Latin means affliction with little dragons. In Africa it is also called empty granary as it erupts around harvest time debilitating the farmer and thus affecting the local food supply. It is a parasitic disease caused by the roundworm parasite Dracunculus medenesis.
- The affliction has been around for thousands of years and is so ancient that it has even been found in Egyptian mummies. It got its name Guinea worm after the Europeans saw the disease on the Guinea coast of West Africa in the 17th century.
- South Sudan, Mali, Ethiopia, and Chad — reported cases of guinea worm in 2014. 56% of all cases reported in 2014 were in South Sudan.
- Yaws has been eliminated from the country in 2006. This disease primarily affects tribal population living in remote, hilly and forest areas having difficult terrain.
- Yaws belongs to a group of chronic bacterial infections (endemic treponematoses, nonvenereal spirochetal diseases) caused by treponemes. Other diseases belonging to this group are bejel (endemic syphilis) and pinta.
- Yaws is the most common of all and occurs primarily in the warm, humid and tropical areas of Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Indian peninsula and the equatorial islands of South-East Asia.

ANSWER: Both

Explanation:
Dengue is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles. In a small proportion of cases, the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where dangerously low blood pressure occurs.

ANSWER: India

Explanation:
The WHO has declared that mothers and newborns are free from tetanus at the time of birth in India. Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, is an infection characterized by muscle spasms.Spasms may be so severe that bone fractures may occur. Other symptoms may include fever,sweating, headache, trouble swallowing, high blood pressure, and a fast heart rate. Onset of symptoms is typically three to twenty one days following infection. It may take months to recover. About 10% of those infected die.

ANSWER: Only 1

Explanation:
Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) was transferred from aegis of ministry of labor and employment to ministry of Health and welfare from April 1, 2015 under the National Health Assurance Mission.

ANSWER: 1,2

Explanation:
Blood group AB has both A and B antigen on red cells and no antibody in the plasma.

Blood group O has no A and B antigen on red cells but both A and B antibody in the plasma.

Universal donor: O+

Universal accepter: AB