Solution (a)

International organizations have come together to launch a new One Health High-Level Expert Panel to improve understanding of how diseases with the potential to trigger pandemics, emerge and spread. The panel will advise four international organizations – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE); the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); and the World Health Organization (WHO) – on the development of a long-term global plan of action to avert outbreaks of diseases like H5N1 avian influenza; MERS; Ebola; Zika, and, possibly, COVID-19. Three quarters of all emerging infectious diseases originate in animals.

• It will analyse the factors that lead to transmission of a disease from animal to human and vice versa
• Development of risk assessment and surveillance frameworks
• Identification of capacity gaps as well as agreement on good practices to prevent and prepare for zoonotic outbreaks.
• The panel will consider the impact of human activity on the environment and wildlife habitats. Critical areas will include food production and distribution; urbanization and infrastructure development; international travel and trade; activities that lead to biodiversity loss and climate change; and those that put increased pressure on the natural resource base – all of which can lead to the emergence of zoonotic diseases.

Article Link:  New international expert panel to address the emergence and spread of zoonotic diseases

Solution (b)

Global Health Summit was organised by G20. At the summit G20 countries agreed to the Rome Declaration which sets out principles and guiding commitments to overcome the challenges posed by Covid-19.

Principles of Rome Declaration are:

• Support and enhance the existing multilateral health architecture for preparedness, prevention,
  detection and response. 
• enhanced implementation of the multi-sectoral, evidence based One Health approach to address risks emerging from the human-animal-environment interface, the threat of anti-microbial resistance, noting the role of relevant international organisations in that regard.
• Foster all-of-society and health-in-all policies approaches
• Promote the multilateral trading system and the importance of open, resilient, diversified, secure, efficient and reliable global supply chains across the whole value chain related to health emergencies
• Enable equitable, affordable, timely, global access to high-quality, safe and effective prevention,
  detection and response tools.

Article Link: Global Health Summit: Rome Declaration

Solution (b)

The Protected Planet Report 2020 is published by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

It assesses the state of protected and conserved areas around the world.

The Protected Planet Report 2020 edition provides the final report on the status of Aichi Biodiversity Target 11. The Aichi Biodiversity Targets were adopted during the tenth meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP 10) in 2010 in Nagoya, Japan.

Key findings of the report are:

• As many as 82% of countries and territories increased their share of protected area and coverage of other effective area- based conservation measures (OECM) since 2010. OECM are a conservation designation for areas that are achieving the effective in-situ conservation of biodiversity outside of protected areas.
• Since 2010, over 21 million square kilometer has been placed within protected and conserved areas, meaning 42% of the area now within protected and conserved areas has been added in the last decade.
• On an average, 62.6% of key biodiversity areas (KBA) either fully or partially overlap with protected areas and OECMs. KBAs are the sites that contribute significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity, in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystem. 

Article Link: More protected: 82% countries raised cover for vulnerable areas in a decade

Solution (c)

GaiaEnceladus is the remains of a dwarf galaxy that merged with the Milky Way about 8-11 billion years ago. The merging of the Milky Way with a satellite galaxy GaiaEnceladus is very significant in
the Milky Way’s history. By estimating the ages of a bunch of red giants in the Milky Way galaxy, researchers were able to show that this merger took place some ten billion years ago. By then, the Milky Way already had its own stars at the centre and those from the merger occupied the edges. This work was published in Nature Astronomy

Article Link: Celestial history

Solution (b)

Whooping cough or Pertussis is a respiratory illness caused by bacteria called Bordetella pertussis.

Meningitis is an inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. A bacterial or viral infection of the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord usually causes the swelling.

Mucormycosis ia a serious but rare infection caused by a group of moulds called mucormycetes. These moulds live throughout the environment. Mucormycosis mainly affects people who have health problems or take medicines that lower the body’s ability to fight germs and sickness. It is also termed as black Fungus.

Article Link: What is mucormycosis, its symptoms and treatment?