Type: Prelims Only

Children in the world over have shown to be affected by either Kawasaki Disease (KD) since the reopening of schools.

Try this PYQ:

Q.H1N1 virus is sometimes mentioned in the news with reference to which one of the following diseases?

(a) AIDS

(b) Bird flu

(c) Dengue

(d) Swine flu

What is Kawasaki Disease?

• Kawasaki disease is an illness that causes blood vessels to become inflamed, almost always in young children.
• Its cause is yet unknown. It is one of the leading causes of heart disease in kids.
• But doctors can treat it if they find it early. Most children recover without any problems.

Symptoms

Kawasaki disease comes on fast, and symptoms show up in phases. Signs of the first phase of Kawasaki disease include:

• High fever that lasts more than 5 days
• Swelling and redness in hands and bottoms of feet
• Red eyes
• Swollen glands, especially in the neck
• Irritated throat, mouth, and lips

In the second phase, symptoms include:

• Joint pain
• Stomach trouble, such as diarrhoea and vomiting
• Peeling skin on hands and feet

While novel coronavirus is undergoing many mutations, one particular mutation called D614G, according to a study, has become the dominant variant in the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Try this PYQ:

Q.Which one of the following statements is not correct?

(a) Hepatitis B virus is transmitted much like HIV.

(b) Hepatitis B, unlike Hepatitis C, does not have a vaccine.

(c) Globally, the number of people infected with Hepatitis B and C viruses is several times more than those infected with HIV.

(d) Some of those infected with Hepatitis B and C viruses do not show the symptoms for many years.

D614G mutation

• When the virus enters an individual’s body, it aims at creating copies of itself. When it makes an error in this copying process, we get a mutation.
• In this case, the virus replaced the aspartic acid (D) in the 614th position of the amino acid with glycine (G). Hence the mutation is called the D614G.
• This mutated form of the virus was first identified in China and then in Europe. Later it spread to other countries like the U.S. and Canada and was eventually reported in India.

Threats posed

• This particular mutation aids the virus in attaching more efficiently with the ACE2 receptor in the human host, thereby making it more successful in entering a human body than its predecessors.
• D614G show increased infectivity but it also displayed greater ability at attaching itself to the cell walls inside an individual’s nose and throat, increasing the viral load.

How prevalent is it in India?

• A study (reveals that the D614G was one of the most prevalent spike mutations even during the initial phase of the pandemic.
• Since then, D614G mutation’s ‘relative abundance’ has increased over time to 70% and above, in most states except Delhi.

For several years now, doctors and researchers have known that 98.6°F is not really the gold-standard “normal” body temperature it was once considered to be.

The “normal” body temperature

• In 1851, Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich pioneered the use of the clinical thermometer.
• It was a rod a foot long, which he would stick under the armpits of patients at the hospital attached with Leipzig University, and then wait for 15 minutes for the temperature to register.
• He took over a million measurements of 25,000 patients, and published his findings in a book in 1868, in which he concluded that the average human body temperature is 98.6°F.
• Most modern scientists feel Wunderlich’s experiments were flawed, and his equipment inaccurate.
• Another study concluded that the average human body temperature is closer to 98.2°F, and suggested that the 98.6°F benchmark be discarded.

The anomaly

• Studies in the US and Europe have found average body temperatures declining over time.
• In recent years, however, different studies have found the human body temperature averaging out differently, including at 97.7°, 97.9° and 98.2°F.
• One of the largest such studies, published last year, found that body temperatures among Americans have been declining over the last two centuries.

Now try this PYQ based on health sciences

Q.Which of the following diseases can be transmitted from one person to another through tattooing?

1. Chikungunya
2. Hepatitis B
3. HIV-AIDS

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

(a) Only 1

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3