CURRENT AFFAIRS 17 SEPTEMBER 2019

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS 17 SEPTEMBER 2019

BY SUMIT BHARDWAJ

IMPORTANT NEWS ARTICLES

ANALYSIS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF OUR NATION

1.Drone strikes on Saudi facility lead to jump in crude prices(gs-2,3)

• Context:Drone attacks last week on Saudi Arabia’s crude processing facility, the largest in the world, have impacted half of the country’s crude oil production and about 5% of the world supply. Following the attacks, on Monday, Global Brent crude futures shot up more than 20% to $66.91 per barrel.
• However, allaying Indian fears, Saudi Aramco officials have told oil companies that the attacks would not result in a shortage of supplies, the Ministry of Petroleum has said.
• Ratings agencies, however, said India will see a rise in prices due to the increase in the risk premium.
• Saudi Arabia is a major source of oil imports for India, accounting for nearly 18% of the 226 million tonnes of crude the country imported during 2018-19, according to data with the Ministry of Commerce. India, which imports more than 80% of its crude oil requirement, is particularly vulnerable to geopolitical risks arising out of the oil producing countries.

SAUDI-INDIA RELATIONS AT A GLANCE:

• Both India and Saudi Arabia maintain a fairly balancing support in their neighbourhood, while maintaining fruitful relationship with each other.

What does the bilateral relations reveal?

• India is one of the world’s largest economies and will soon be the world’s second-largest oil market.
• India obtains 20% of its oil from Saudi Arabia and three million Indians work there.
• India’s efforts to woo Saudi Arabia have been one of its more notable foreign policy successes of the last decade.
• During the recent visit, the Saudi prince promised to collaborate on a $44-billion oil refinery.
• He also said that the total investment opportunities in India will exceed $100 billion in the coming two years.
• Along with that, he said the Saudis would free 800 Indians held in its jails.
• Thus, both India and Saudi Arabia will continue to find it useful to engage each other.

What does Saudi’s relations in India’s neighbourhood reveal?

• Saudi Arabia is looking at the possibility of a Look East strategy, because oil demand will rise in Asia in coming years.
• With China - China is Saudi Arabia’s biggest trading partner.
• The Saudis are talking to China about putting up a refinery in Gwadar, Pakistan, which is being developed as a key port by the Chinese.
• With Pakistan - The Saudis have also been one of Pakistan’s key supporters and they need both India and Pakistan.
• Pakistan relies on Saudi Arabia for everything from aid and investments to military back-up and also the assistance to develop nuclear technology.
• Thus, though Saudi Arabia promised to “cooperate in every way, including intelligence sharing” on the backdrop of recent pulwama attack, India will have to press the Saudis harder on committing to the war against terror.

What is the Indian Approach in West Asia?

• India, on its part, maintains a balancing approach in west Asia.
• Since the 1990-91 Gulf War, India has officially adopted a “balancing” approach to West Asia, which some view as a legacy of non-alignment.
• With Saudi and UAE - The campaign by Saudi Arabia and the UAE to curtail the influence of political Islamist groups draws them closer to India.
• In recent months, the UAE has also ramped up its security cooperation with India, extraditing at least three suspects wanted in relation to the AgustaWestland case.
• Economically, the ability of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to mobilise investments despite low oil prices is a huge asset in their relations with India.
• Investments have included a $44 billion oil refinery in India by Saudi Aramco and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in partnership with an Indian consortium.
• With Israel - India’s defence and security partnership with Israel has already proven useful to its security and military modernisation drive.
• Recently, India and Israel have collaborated on a $777 million project to develop a maritime version of the Barak-8 missile.
• India has also reportedly agreed to purchase 54 HAROP attack drones for the Indian Air Force and two airborne warning and control systems (AWACS) worth over $800 million from Israel.
• Due to its technological sophistication and warm relations, Israel has become one of India’s top suppliers of military technology.
• With Iran - Iran continues to exercise much influence in West Asia and can help shape events in Afghanistan by shoring up the Taliban against the U.S.
• Moreover, Iran’s Chabahar port represents a strategic investment for India which hopes to use the facility to connect with the International North-South Transit Corridor (INSTC) that extends to Central Asia and to bypass Pakistan en route to Afghanistan.
• Thus, both India and Saudi Arabia maintain a balancing approach in their respective neighbourhood, while their bilateral negotiations were moving on to next levels.

Importance of India to Saudi Arabia:

• Enhanced ties with India is important for Saudi Arabia as well. The kingdom is facing economic strain in the wake of persistently weak oil prices.
• The U.S. is no longer as dependent on the region for energy as it used to be, thanks to the shale boom.
• Demand from China is also receding in the wake of a slowdown. Besides, competition in the oil market is expected to tighten with a sanctions-free Iran entering the global economic mainstream without any bars.
• In this context, India is a vital market for Saudi Arabia. There is believed to be friction between Islamabad and Riyadh over the former warming up to Tehran and their growing energy cooperation.
• Pakistan also refused to join Saudi Arabia’s war coalition that has been bombing Yemen for the past one year in the name of fighting the Iran-backed Shia rebels.

2.Rohingya still in Myanmar face 'threat of genocide': United Nations(GS-2,3)

• CONTEXT:Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who remain inside Myanmar face systematic persecution and are living under the threat of genocide, a U.N. fact-finding mission said on Monday, repeating calls for top generals to face trial.
• Myanmar security forces are accused of killings, gang rape and arson during a crackdown that drove more than 730,000 people to flee western Rakhine state for neighbouring Bangladesh after attacks on police posts by Rohingya insurgents in August 2017.

• Myanmar has rejected most of the accusations and dismissed a report last September by a U.N-appointed panel which said military officers carried out the campaign against the Rohingya with “genocidal intent” and should stand trial.

WHAT IS GENOCIDE?

• The word “genocide” owes its existence to Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish lawyer who fled the Nazi occupation of Poland and arrived in the United States in 1941. As a boy, Lemkin had been horrified when he learned of the Turkish massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during World War I.
• Lemkin later set out to come up with a term to describe Nazi crimes against European Jews during World War II, and to enter that term into the world of international law in the hopes of preventing and punishing such horrific crimes against innocent people
• Genocide is a term used to describe violence against members of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group with the intent to destroy the entire group. The word came into general usage only after World War II, when the full extent of the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime against European Jews during that conflict became known. In 1948, the United Nations declared genocide to be an international crime; the term would later be applied to the horrific acts of violence committed during conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and in the African country of Rwanda in the 1990s.

WHO ARE ROHINGYAS?

• They are an Ethnic group, mostly Muslims. They were not granted full citizenship by Myanmar. They were classified as “resident foreigners or associate citizens”. They speak a dialect of Bengali and not Burmese. Ethnically they are much closer to Indo-Aryan people of India and Bangladesh than to the Sino-Tibetans of the Country

What’s the issue?

• Few years ago, religious and ethnic tensions between the Rohingya Muslims and the Rakhine Buddhists (who make up the majority of the population in Myanmar) escalated into widespread, deadly rioting. Hundreds of thousands were forced to flee. Since then, ongoing violent attacks have forced even more people to leave their homes.
• The Myanmar Government says that Rohingya people are not Burmese citizens – but the Rohingya have been living in Myanmar for generations. Today, they are a people with no home or citizenship.
• Rohingya people are being widely abused and exploited. They are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

3.Fuel prices may rise by up to RS 5 a litre(GS-2,3)

• CONTEXT:Prices of petroleum products like petrol and diesel are likely to go up by up to RS 5 a litre each over the course of the next few days as international crude oil prices shot up after the drone attack on Saudi Aramco’s facility at Abqaiq. Benchmark Brent crude prices were up by over $6 at $67 a barrel on Monday, which is a jump of over 10%, and could rise further.
• Oil marketing companies (OMCs) will have to increase the retail product prices in a fortnight.
• Besides, the sharp jump in global crude prices may also put pressure on refining margins amid slowing demand, increasing the OMCs’ prospects of making losses.
• Following the drone attack on its oil processing facility at Abqaiq, Saudi Aramco has cut down its oil production by 5.7 million barrels per day (mbpd).
• This has reduced global oil supply by 6%, which is huge. However, this will not result in a physical shortage of oil for India.
• The real impact for India will be the rise in prices.

UNDERSTANDING how oil prices are decided…

How Crude Oil is priced?

• The collapse of the OPEC administered pricing system in 1986-1988 ushered in a new era in oil pricing in which the power to set oil prices shifted from OPEC to the so called “market”. This system was first adopted by the Mexican national oil company PEMEX in 1986. Soon, it received wide acceptance among most oil-exporting countries and by 1988 it became and still is the main method for pricing crude oil in international trade. 

The reasons which led to development of market related pricing of the oil prices are as follows:

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  The frequent waves of protests and political crises led to disruption supplies to multinational oil companies OPEC oil production reduced and emergence of many suppliers outside OPEC Development of a complex structure of interlinked oil markets which consists of spot and also physical forwards, futures, options and other derivative markets referred to as paper markets Technological innovations that made electronic trading possible allowing 24-hour trading from any place in the world. It also gave rise to new market participants and allowed the development of a large number of trading instruments both on regulated exchanges and over the counter. 
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  The current reference, or pricing markers, is Brent, WTI, and Dubai/Oman. The oil price reporting agencies (PRAs) are an important component of the oil industry. The prices that these agencies identify or assess underlie the basis of long-term contracts; spot market transactions, futures markets contracts and derivatives instruments. 
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  PRAs use a wide variety of methods to identify the oil price which may include the volume weighted average system, low and high deals done, and market-on-close (MOC). On the onset of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, there was a dramatic rise in the prices of crude oil to as high as $148/bbl the international market. This was followed by an equally dramatic fall. This posed a challenge to the economy of oil importing countries including India.

Indian situation

• India is the 3rd largest oil consumer in the world
• India imports more 80% of its requirement of crude and of that more than 60% of its needs from OPEC
• Recently Iraq has become the largest exporter of Oil to India followed by Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait, Venezuela, Nigeria etc
• Oil and Iran
• India purchases 10% of its requirement from Iran
• It is also 3rd largest supplier to India
• It provides credit of 60 days
• Iran supplies 2.4 MN barrels per day of crude to the international market
• The value of import bill for oil increased by 76% in July from a year earlier to $10.2 bn, which pushed up the trade deficit to more than $18 bn (the highest in five years). The increasing crude oil prices will ensure that the CAD will reach 2.6% of GDP in this financial year from 1.5% a year ago
• Pricing/Financials
• ATF prices were deregulated in 2002, Petrol prices were deregulated in 2010 and diesel prices were deregulated in 2014. The present government has implemented the dynamic pricing
• Under GST
• LPG
• Naptha
• Furnace Oil
• Light Diesel
• Out of the ambit of GST
• Crude oil
• High Speed Diesel
• Petrol (Motor Spirit)
• Natural Gas
• Aviation Turbine Fuel
• The government incurs subsidy costs as not all the fuel products are linked to market rates. Components such as kerosene and LPG still are provided with subsidy. For this financial year the govt has allocated RS24932 Cr. the crashing rupee value will increase the subsidy burden of the government.

Political interference

• Though, the union government deregulated petrol price in 2010 and diesel price in 2014, which allowed oil marketing companies to decide on the prices of fuel, according to the change in international oil prices based on the currency exchange rate. But, the state owned oil marketing firms Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp weren’t allowed to raise prices in the state or national election in order to avoid people’s anger. But to compensate the oil companies, the government allowed them to charge higher prices even when international oil rates have fallen.

India's petroleum dependency

• Though there is a mix of both private sector companies like Reliance Industries, Cairn India Ltd; and public sector counterparts like Oil India, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) among others in this sector. However, these companies together cater to only 25% of India’s crude oil requirement. 75% of India’s crude oil needs is met through imports. International prices of crude oil and foreign exchange rates form the base components of price of petrol and diesel prices in India. But this forms only a small portion of the retail price of the fuel, the final price is determined by other factors like taxes, duties, cess and dealer margins.

Fuel price calculation in India

Petrol and Diesel Prices have steadily been increasing after daily price revisions, but it must be noted that fuel price are excluded from GST, but other costs and taxes are included. Here is a sample of how petrol price is calculated.

Charges and Taxes	Petrol Price
International Price of Crude Oil + Ocean Freight (as on 13th June 2018) – Dollar price (Rs 67.61)	75.33 $ or Rs 5093.33 per Barrel
1 Barrel of Crude Oil	159 Litre
Crude Oil  - Cost per Litre	Rs 32.03 per Litre
Basic OMC Cost Calculation *
Entry Tax, Refinery Processing, Landing Cost & Other Operational Costs along with Margins	Rs 2.1 per Litre
OMC Margin, Transportation, Freight cost	Rs 3.31 per Litre
Basic Cost of Fuel after Refining Cost	Rs 37.44 per Litre
Additional: Excise Duty + Road Cess as Charged by Central Government	Rs 19.48 / Litre on Petrol
Pricing Charged to Dealers before VAT	Rs 56.92 per Litre
Calculating Dealer Retail Price - Base Location (Delhi)
Commission to Petrol Pump Dealers	Rs 3.63 per Litre
Fuel Cost Before VAT (rounded off for approximation)	Rs 60.55 per Litre
Additional:VAT (Varies from State to State - 27% on Petrol & 16.75% on Diesel + 25p as Pollution Cess with Surcharge)	Rs 16.61 / Lit on Petrol
Final Retail Price as on 13th June 2018 -(calculation)	Rs 77.11 per Litre

4.Make in India, export from here, Prasad tells tech majors(GS-3)

• CONTEXT:Stating that its investments in India till now were just a ‘tip of the iceberg’, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday called upon tech giant Apple to create a ‘robust’ presence in India.
• The Minister, who holds the portfolio of Electronics and IT, was speaking to reporters after a day-long conference with over 50 top executives from the electronics manufacturing sector.
• At present, two Apple phones — iPhone 6S and iPhone 7 — are assembled in India through contract manufacturer Wistron.
• Promising all support from the government, including sops for making in India and exporting from here, Mr. Prasad pitched for making India a hub for electronics manufacturing. India has set a target of creating $400 billion electronic manufacturing ecosystem by 2025.

LETS SEE WHATS Make in India…

• The initiative basically promises the investors – both domestic and overseas – a conducive environment to turn 125 crore population strong-India a manufacturing hub and something that will also create job opportunities.
• That’s in effect a plunge into a serious business but it is also punctuated with two inherent elements in any innovation – new avenues or tapping of opportunities and facing the challenges to keep the right balance. The political leadership is widely expected to be populist; but ‘Make in India’ initiative is actually seen as a judicious mix of economic prudence, administrative reforms and thus catering to the call of people’s mandate – an aspiring India.
• The vision statement of official website, www.makeinindia.gov.in commits to achieve for the country among other things an increase in manufacturing sector growth to 12-14 % per annum over the medium term, increase in the share of manufacturing in the country’s Gross Domestic Product from 16% to 25% by 2022 and importantly to create 100 million additional jobs by 2022 in the manufacturing sector alone. These are quite highly ambitious targets given the background that the manufacturing sector in India, which accounts for fourth-fifth of the total output, grew a meagre 3.3 per cent in January 2010.
• Achievable Targets
• Target of an increase in manufacturing sector growth to 12-14% per annum over the medium term.
• An increase in the share of manufacturing in the country’s Gross Domestic Product from 16% to 25% by 2022.
• To create 100 million additional jobs by 2022 in manufacturing sector.
• Creation of appropriate skill sets among rural migrants and the urban poor for inclusive growth.
• An increase in domestic value addition and technological depth in manufacturing.
• Enhancing the global competitiveness of the Indian manufacturing sector.
• Ensuring sustainability of growth, particularly with regard to environment.
• The country is expected to rank amongst the world’s top three growth economies and amongst the top three manufacturing destinations by as early as 2020. This is far more ambitious scene than promised about 2050 sometime back in the context of India’s role at the BRICS level. Indian manufacturing sector has positive elements like “favourable demographic dividends” for the next 2-3 decades. The sustained availability of quality workforce is another advantage. The cost of manpower is relatively low as compared to other countries. There are responsible business houses operating with credibility and professionalism. The country has a democratized polity vis-à-vis the rule of law and a strong consumerism intake ability of the domestic market.
• Favourable Milestones
• India has already marked its presence as one of the fastest growing economies of the world.
• The country is expected to rank amongst the world’s top three growth economies and amongst the top three manufacturing destinations by 2020.
• Favourable demographic dividends for the next 2-3 decades. Sustained availability of quality workforce.
• The cost of manpower is relatively low as compared to other countries.
• Responsible business houses operating with credibility and professionalism.
• Strong consumerism in the domestic market.
• Strong technical and engineering capabilities backed by top-notch scientific and technical institutes.
• Well-regulated and stable financial markets open to foreign investors.
• A technology acquisition and development fund has been proposed for the acquisition of appropriate technologies, the creation of a patent pool and the development of domestic manufacturing of equipment used for controlling pollution and reducing energy consumption.
• This fund will also function as an autonomous patent pool and licensing agency. It will purchase intellectual property rights from patent holders.
• Training of Workforce
• The manufacturing sector cannot develop on its own without skilled labour force and in this context it is heartening to note the government’s initiatives for skill development. The creation of appropriate skill would definitely set rural migrants and the urban poor on a track towards inclusive growth. That would be a vital step for boosting manufacturing.
• The New Ministry for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has initiated the process of revising the National Policy on Skill Development. It is significant to note that under the Rural Development ministry, Government has undertaken another new initiative for skill development programme named Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) - Skill Development for Inclusive Growth
• The new training programme envisages setting up of at least 1500 to 2000 training centres across the country and the entire project would result in an estimated expenditure of Rs 2000 crore and will be run on PPP model.
• The new training programme would enable the youths to get jobs in demand-oriented markets like Spain, US, Japan, Russia, France, China, UK and West Asia. The government proposes to train about 3 lakh youths annually in first two years and by the end of 2017, it has set a target of reaching out to as many as 10 lakh rural youths.

5.Public Safety Act (PSA) (GS-2,3)

• CONTEXT:Farooq detained under PSA, his house declared a jail.

What is the J&K Public Safety Act?

• The Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA), which received the assent of the J&K Governor on April 8, 1978, is often referred to as a “draconian” law.
• The Act was introduced by the government of Sheikh Abdullah as a tough law to prevent the smuggling of timber and keep the smugglers “out of circulation”. The law allowed the government to detain any person above the age of 16 without trial for a period of two years.
• However, right from the beginning, the law was misused widely, and was repeatedly employed against political opponents by consecutive governments until 1990. After the emergence of militancy, the J&K government frequently invoked the PSA to crack down on separatists.
• In the aftermath of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July 2016, hundreds of youths in the Valley were detained under PSA, with extendable detention periods. In August 2018, the Act was amended to allow individuals to be detained under the PSA outside the state as well.
• The PSA allows for administrative detention for up to two years “in the case of persons acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the State”, and for administrative detention up to one year where “any person is acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order”.
• Detention orders under PSA can be issued by Divisional Commissioners or District Magistrates. The detaining authority need not disclose any facts about the detention “which it considers to be against the public interest to disclose”.
• Section 22 of the Act provides protection for any action taken “in good faith” under the Act: “No suit, prosecution or any other legal proceeding shall lie against any person for anything done or intended to be done in good faith in pursuance of the provisions of this Act.”
• Under Section 23 of the Act, the government is empowered to “make such Rules consistent with the provisions of this Act, as may be necessary for carrying out the objects of this Act”.
• However, global human rights organisations such as Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and Amnesty International have noted in their reports that responses by various government authorities to applications filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 suggest that no Rules have so far been framed to lay down procedures for the implementation of the provisions of the PSA.
• An Amnesty report published earlier this year, which analysed over 200 case studies of PSA detainees between 2012 and 2018, said former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had informed the J&K Assembly in January 2017 that between 2007 and 2016, over 2,400 PSA detention orders were passed, of which about 58% were quashed by the courts. Also, Mehbooba told the Assembly in January 2018 that 525 people had been detained under the PSA in 2016, and 201 in 2017.
• J&K parties have often blamed each other for the rampant misuse of the PSA. A promise by former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah this year on revoking the PSA if voted to power drew scorn from both Mehbooba’s PDP and Sajad Lone’s People’s Conference.

6.Malaria cases higher than last year: report(GS-2)

• CONTEXT:The number of malaria cases reported till September 16 this year is higher than those recorded last year, as per data released by the Delhi municipal corporations.
• The data reveal that 247 cases of malaria were reported this year till the second week of September. Nearly 100 cases were reported in the past two weeks.
• During the same period in 2018, there were 225 cases; 410 in 2017; 286 in 2016; 66 in 2015; and 120 in 2014.

• Dengue cases
• The number of cases of dengue till September 16 this year stand at 171.
• Out of these, up to 80 cases were reported in the last two weeks.
• The lowest number of dengue cases in the same period was recorded in 2014 at 55. The highest number of dengue cases in the last five years was reported in 2015 at 15,867.
• Chikungunya cases
• The number of cases of chikungunya is also starting to pick up with 60 cases reported so far this year. Out of these, around 30 were recorded in the last two weeks.

Malaria

• Predominantly found in the tropical and subtropical areas of Africa, South America as well as Asia, malaria is a life threatening mosquito borne blood disease caused by plasmodium parasites.
• The parasites spread through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.
• Four types of malaria parasites can infect humans: Plasmodium Vivax, P. ovale, P. malariae and P. falciparum.
• Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium Vivax are the most common types that infect humans.
• Plasmodium falciparum causes a more severe form of the disease leading to higher risk of death.
• When an infected mosquito bites a person, the parasite is released into the bloodstream, it then travels to the liver where it matures.
• After some days, mature parasites start infecting the red blood cells. Within 48 to 72 hours, the parasites inside the red blood cells multiply causing infected cells to burst open.
• Malaria signs and symptoms typically begin within a few weeks after being bitten by an infected mosquito. However, some types of malaria parasites can lie dormant in body for upto a year.
• It is preventable as well as curable.

Symptoms

• Malaria symptoms typically develop within 10 days to four weeks following the infection. Common symptoms of malaria include:
• Shaking chills that can range from moderate to severe high fever.
• Sweating, headache, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
• Diarrhoea, Anaemia, muscle pain and convulsions.
• Severe plasmodium falciparum infection can lead to coma, permanent brain failure and even death.
• Some people who have malaria experience cycle of malaria attacks.
• Such attacks start with shivering and chills followed by a high fever, sweating and return to a normal temperature.

Treatment

• Treatment of malaria aims at eliminating the plasmodium parasite from the bloodstream through medication. Chemotherapy is an option.
• Those without symptoms may be treated for the infection to reduce the risk of disease transmission in surrounding population.

Prevention

• Vector control is the main way to prevent and reduce malaria transmission.
• If coverage of vector control interventions within a specific area is high enough then a measure of protection is needed to be conferred across the community.
• Most malaria carrying mosquitoes bite at night, so insecticide treated mosquito nets can be a life saving barrier.
• Doses of antimalarials during pregnancy can protect both mother and child.
• Getting rid of pools of stagnant water, clearing bushes from around the houses and planting lemon grass can all reduce the number of mosquitoes nearby.
• Health education, an important aspect for preventing malaria and malaria deaths, is needed for improving people’s understanding of the disease which includes awareness of the symptoms, treatments and preventive steps.
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Dengue

• Dengue is a vector-borne disease transmitted by the bite of an infected female Aedes Aegypti mosquito.
• The mosquito becomes infected when it feeds on the blood of a person infected with the virus. After about one week, the mosquito can then transmit the virus while biting a healthy person.
• There are 4 serotypes of the virus that causes dengue. These are known as DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, DEN-4.
• Infection with one strain will provide life-time protection only against that particular strain. However, it is still possible to become infected by other strains and develop into severe dengue.
• Dengue cannot be spread directly from person to person. However, a person infected and suffering from dengue fever can infect other mosquitoes.
• Most cases occur in tropical areas of the world, including the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Southern China, Taiwan, the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, Mexico, Africa, Central and South America.
• Dengue causes flu-like symptoms and lasts for 2-7 days. Dengue fever usually occurs after an incubation period of 4-10 days after the bite of the infected mosquito.
• High Fever (40°C/ 104°F) is usually accompanied by at least two of the following symptoms: headaches, pain behind eyes, nausea, vomiting, swollen glands, joint, bone or muscle pains and rash.
• There is no vaccine or specific medication for dengue fever. Patients should seek medical advice, rest and drink plenty of fluids.
• As a precautionary approach, patients can adopt measures to reduce transmission by sleeping under a treated net especially during the period of illness with fever.
• Aedes aegypti is a daytime feeder. The peak biting periods are early in the morning and in the evening before dusk.
• Aedes aegypti has evolved into an intermittent biter and prefers to bite more than one person during the feeding period. This mechanism has made Aedes aegypti a very highly efficient epidemic vector mosquito

Chikungunya:

• Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne virus that causes a disease.
• It is transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes.
• Its symptoms are characterised by abrupt fever and severe joint pain, often in hands and feet, and may include headache, muscle pain, joint swelling or rash.  
• There is no specific antiviral drug treatment for chikungunya.
• There is no commercial chikungunya vaccine.
• Chikungunya treatment is directed primarily at relieving the symptoms, including the joint pain using anti-pyretics, optimal analgesics and fluids.