QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz,23 May 2018

Solution: b.

The Hellisheidi power station, outside Reykjavik, is Iceland’s main geothermal plant, and is one of the largest in the world. This is a volcanic area. The volcano’s internal heat is harnessed to generate electricity and provide hot water for the city’s heating systems. Hellisheidi is not just an accomplished provider of green energy. It is also the site for a scientific breakthrough; an experiment to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) and turn it into stone – forever.

Called CarbFix, the project is pioneered by an international consortium led by Reykjavík Energy, the French National Centre for Scientific Research, the University of Iceland and Columbia University. It stands out among CCS experiments because the capture of carbon is said to be permanent – and fast.

The process starts with the capture of waste CO2 from the steam, which is then dissolved into large volumes of water. The fizzy liquid is then piped to the injection site where it is pumped 1,000m beneath the surface. In a matter of months, chemical reactions will solidify the CO2 into rock – thus preventing it from escaping back into the atmosphere for millions of years. However, this project is very water intensive. Over 25 tonnes of water per tonne of CO2 is needed.

Image: Basalt is “carbon’s best friend”, because it is a porous rock that contains high amounts of calcium, magnesium and iron, which bind with the pumped CO2 to help it solidify into a mineral.

BBC;

—

Solution: b.

This is the ninth ebola outbreak in Congo since 1976, when the deadly disease was first identified.

None of the ebola cases in Congo have been connected to the massive outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in West Africa that began in 2014 and left more than 11,300 dead.

Q67 CS(P) 2015;

BBC; TH;

—

Solution: b.

Since the beginning of the year, Nigeria has been gripped by an outbreak of a deadly disease. Lassa fever (the disease was first identified in the Nigerian town of Lassa in 1969) is one of a number of illnesses which can cause dangerous epidemics, but for which no vaccine currently exists. Lassa fever is not a new disease, but the current outbreak is unprecedented, spreading faster and further than ever before.

Lassa fever normally has a fatality rate of about one per cent. But in the Nigerian outbreak it is thought to be more than 20% among confirmed and probable cases.

Early March, 2018: BBC;

Solution: d.

CEPI is a new alliance between governments, industry, academia, philanthropy, intergovernmental institutions, such as the World Health Organization, and civil society.

• “We exist to finance and coordinate the development of new vaccines to prevent and contain infectious disease epidemics.”
• The coalition will not focus on diseases that already have sufficient attention, but will be guided by WHO’s Blueprint, which lists certain illnesses to focus on. The goal of the coalition is to focus on diseases which do not have a large market in global terms.
• India is represented by the Ministries of Science and Technologies and Health and Family Welfare.

Improvisation: BBC;

CEPI;

From 2016: TH;

—

Solution: b.

As per the latest review of the list, there is an urgent need for accelerated research and development for:

• Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF)
• Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease
• Lassa fever
• Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
• Nipah and henipaviral diseases
• Rift Valley fever (RVF)
• Zika
• Disease X

Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease, and so the R&D Blueprint explicitly seeks to enable cross-cutting R&D preparedness that is also relevant for an unknown “Disease X” as far as possible.

WHO Blueprint;

Improvisation: BBC; CEPI;

—