Connecting With Other Beings
U.S-FDA approves fast track development of Moderna’s vaccine candidate, it approved for the phase-2 human trials and phase3 is to begin in the early summer. The phase 2 trial will consist of 600 candidates and if everything goes well, the vaccine production will begin as early as July.
An arthritis drug is found to cure severe COVID-19 patients, an anti-inflammatory drug called anakinra is found to improve respiratory functions in severely affected COVID-19 patients. This drug was treated with the patients who had secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis that is characterized by over activation of the immune system and organ failure.
An antiviral drug named, Interferon(IFN)-α2b is found to improve the recovery rate in COVID-19 patients. Interferons are signaling proteins that are released when the virus infects the human body. Interferons play a role in inhibiting the viral replication in every stage of the virus life cycle. The study was conducted by Dr. Eleanor Fish, an emerita scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, University Health Network, and professor at the University of Toronto's Department of Immunology.
Oxford University vaccine candidate is found to be safe in Macaque monkey trials. During the study, the animals were found to be protective against pneumonia. The team is expecting to occur the same in the human trials too. 1000 volunteers have been registered for the human clinical trials.
DRDO lab in Hyderabad had developed a contactless sanitizer Defence Research Ultraviolet Sanitizer (DRUVS) for mobile phone and cash, laptops, and so on. This will be available in the upcoming week.
Since many of them may know that swarm of the locust was seen in the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh a few days ago. A desert locust is a species of short-horned grasshoppers (Family: Acrididae). These locust species mostly feed on the crop vegetation which is considered as dangerous pests around the middle east, African, and southwestern Asian countries. The major challenges of these pests are rapid growth production and the ability of swarms to fly across great distances. One such incident occurred during 2004-05 in western Africa, where major crop loss occurred and destroyed food security in that region.
How to control this?
It’s a big challenge to control locust attack but, there are certain ways in which insecticides can be used at a lower volume in order to prevent it. When there is a villain, there must be heroes to save the world. Yes, they do exist, Predatory wasps and flies, parasitoid wasps, predatory beetle larvae, birds, and reptiles are natural enemies to desert locust, But they are effective is good against the smaller population.
"Believe in nature, everything occurs for a reason"
