Urban Affairs Ministry starts data portal on cities for policymaking (GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is making raw data from Indian cities available on a single platform for academics, researchers, and stakeholders to help data-driven policymaking.
- The Amplifi 2.0 (Assessment and Monitoring Platform for Liveable, Inclusive and Future-ready urban India) portal was launched earlier.
Details:
- Currently, 258 urban local bodies have been onboarded, and data for 150 cities is available on the portal.
- It is hoped that data from all 3,739 municipal corporations will eventually be made available on the portal.
- It provides data on a range of information for several cities, including total consumption; number of samples tested for water quality; average annual expenditure on healthcare; number of slum dwellers; and road accident fatalities.
Indices:
- Earlier, the Ministry used data provided by the civic bodies to rank cities based on four indices; the ease-of-living and municipal performance indices and climate smart cities assessment and data maturity assessment frameworks. The government is planning to bring out different reports on subsets of the four indices.
- The Urban Outcomes Framework, 2022, which has been developed for the Ministry by the National Institute of Urban Affairs and PwC India, shifts the focus from the indices to data with a comprehensive list of indicators.
- With this, data across 14 sectors are streamlined to increase focus on data collection, and disaggregated data can be analysed by experts.
New frameworks:
- The initiative also provides the opportunity to create new frameworks based on open data.
- The 14 sectors are demography, economy, education, energy, environment, finance, governance, health, housing, mobility, planning, safety and security, solid waste management, and water and sanitation.
Urbanisation in India:
- India has been witnessing rapid urbanisation over the past few years. By 2030, India is projected to have 60 crore (40%) of the population living in urban areas compared with 37.7 crore (31%) in 2011.
- The 2011 Census shows that urban India contributed 63% to the country’s GDP, and this is projected to increase to 75% by 2030.
Eight months on, States wait for 3HP TB preventive drug
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Why in news?
- Eight months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the pan-India rollout of a shorter TB Preventive Treatment (TPT) in March 2023 called the 3HP; once-weekly isoniazid-rifapentine for 12 weeks; States are yet to receive the 3HP combination drug from the Central TB Division.
- Tamil Nadu and Kerala have already begun using 3HP for TB preventive treatment despite not receiving the drug supply.
Details:
- Currently, all household contacts of a person who has been recently diagnosed with pulmonary TB are tested for TB disease and those who do not have TB disease but have been infected with the bacteria are offered treatment to prevent the progression from latent infection to TB disease.
- Daily dose of isoniazid for six months, which is the current treatment protocol, translates to 180 pills. In contrast, the 3HP regimen of one combination drug a week for three months translates to 12 pills in all.
Latest guidelines:
- According to the latest guidelines, all household contacts immaterial of age are eligible for TB preventive therapy once TB disease has been ruled out.
- The 3HP regimen has been associated with a higher completion rate in all subgroups; adults with HIV, adults without HIV, and children and adolescents.
- According to the 2021 Guidelines for programmatic management of tuberculosis preventive treatment in India, the use of the shorter regimen was associated with “at least 20% greater treatment completion rate (82% vs 61%)”.
- Also, TPT using the 3HP drug is cheaper than isoniazid monotherapy for six months.
Efficiency of 3HP:
- While no head-to-head comparison trial between isoniazid for six months and 3HP has not been carried out in India, a trial has compared the two drug regimens in people living with HIV in South Africa.
- The trial found that the incidence of TB disease was the same in both the drug regimens. However, serious adverse reactions, hepatotoxicity was significantly lower in people treated with 3HP.
Latent TB infection:
- While some States offer TB preventive therapy to those about to undergo organ transplantation, all States offer it to household contacts.
- About 30-40% of the Indian population has latent TB infection, and 5-10% of those with latent infection will develop TB disease over the course of their lives. About half of those who develop TB disease will do so within the first two years of infection.
- According to the WHO, TB preventive therapy “can halt progression to TB disease very effectively for many years”, thus preventing a large number of people from developing TB disease within two years of infection.
- In high-burden countries such as India, the chances of reinfection after completing the TB preventive therapy are high, and such reinfection “may reverse this protection”.
Way Forward:
- India should invest more in TB screening using digital chest X-rays and molecular testing for TB disease confirmation.
- TB preventive treatment like 3HP is an important accompaniment to this strategy, to protect TB-free individuals at risk from progressing to disease.
India in measles vaccination
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Why in news?
- A new report from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said measles cases in 2022 have increased by 18%, and deaths by 43% globally, compared to 2021.
- This takes the estimated number of measles cases to nine million and deaths to 1,36,000, mostly among children.
India’s response:
- The Union Health Ministry has refuted a part of the report which said that globally 22 million children did not get their first measles shot in 2022 and that half of them live in 10 countries including India, where an estimated 1.1 million infants did not get the first dose of the vaccine.
- India’s Universal Immunisation Programme is one of the largest public health programmes in the world targeting close to 2.67 crore newborns and 2.9 crore pregnant women annually.
What is the Union Health Ministry saying?
- The Health Ministry maintains that just over 21,000 Indian children did not get the shot and said that the WHO data is based on an estimated number, reported under the WHO UNICEF Estimates National Immunization Coverage (WUENIC) 2022 report, which covers the time period from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022.
- A total of 2,63,63,270 children out of the eligible 2,63,84,580 children received their first dose of measles vaccine in FY 2022-23. It added that 21,310 children missed their first dose in 2022-23; and that initiatives have been undertaken by the Centre in coordination with the States to ensure that all children receive all missed/due doses of the measles vaccine.
- The catch-up vaccination age for the administration of Measles Containing Vaccine (MCV) has been increased from 15months/2 years to 5 years. All unvaccinated/partially vaccinated children with missed/due doses of vaccines will be vaccinated.
What is measles?
- Measles is a contagious disease caused by a virus, which spreads through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Measles starts with a cough, runny nose, red eyes, and fever. Then a rash of tiny, red spots break out. It starts at the head and spreads to the rest of the body.
- According to the WHO, measles vaccination averted 56 million deaths between 2000 and 2021.
- Measles can be prevented with the MMR vaccine. The vaccine protects against three diseases — measles, mumps and rubella. Two doses of MMR vaccine are about 97% effective at preventing measles; one dose is about 93% effective.
- Three doses are recommended at 9 months, 15 months and one dose through 4 to 6 years
What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the vaccination programme?
- The pandemic has led to setbacks in surveillance and immunisation efforts across the globe leaving millions of children vulnerable to diseases like measles.
- In India, as recently as late last year, Maharashtra and Kerala saw a spike in cases of measles. While Maharashtra recorded over 800 cases and over 10 deaths linked to the disease, Kerala’s Malappuram district reported 160 cases of measles.
- The spread caused enough alarm to prompt the Indian Academy of Paediatricians to step in and appeal for vaccination.
