22 Apr 2024 : The Hindu Editorial

Editorial 1 : The mpox virus uses a ‘genomic accordion’ to evolve and infect humans

Context

Poxviruses have long been a cause of fear as well as curiosity for humankind. One particularly infamous poxvirus, smallpox, alone may have killed more than 500 million people in the last century.

Mpox’s 15 minutes

• Another poxvirus, mpox, was recently in the headlines after a rapidly expanding global outbreak in 2022-2023.
• The virus was previously called ‘monkeypox’ after a spillover event in a research facility involving monkeys in 1958; the name is considered both wrong and inappropriate today: since then, researchers have identified mpox in many sporadic outbreaks among humans.
• They have also found multiple mpox lineages have been circulating in humans, adapting by accumulating mutations modulated largely by the APOBEC proteins.

• It wasn’t until 2022 that the disease became widely known, thanks to outbreaks in more than 118 countries and the World Health Organisation (WHO) quickly declaring it a public health emergency.

• Based on WHO data, infections have a mortality rate of 1-10%.
• The outbreak was due to one clade (strains of the virus descended from a common ancestor) — called IIb — having developed very high human-to-human transmission through close contact and spread through the sexual route.
• While the rate of new infections has been dropping, mpox continues to circulate among unvaccinated individuals worldwide.
• This increases the chance that a more virulent and transmissible strain might emerge and become endemic somewhere.

Expanding, contracting as required

• Mpox, like all poxviruses, are DNA viruses.
• The mpox genome also has a sequence of bases repeating in a pattern, which researchers believe play a role in the virus’s evolution.
• All mpox genomes can be divided into two distinct yet broad clades: I and II. Clade I is thought to have a higher mortality. Each clade has sub-clades, or lineages, defined by specific evolutionary processes.
• The mpox family of viruses is also known to be able to evade selective evolutionary pressures.
• It does this by duplicating genes and/or accumulating mutations and expanding its genome significantly — or contracting its genome by deleting gene stretches or inactivating them.
• Such rhythmic expansions and contractions are called genomic accordions.

One eye on the genome

• As with any viral infection, without urgent intervention, the outbreak has the potential to spread rapidly across national, and even continental, boundaries and emerge as another global outbreak.
• To prevent such an outcome, genome sequences from before and during mpox outbreaks have provided well-lit glimpses of the evolutionary dynamics the virus uses to invent new ways to move between and survive in different populations of animals and people.

Conclusion

Thus, through rigorous genomic investigations and coordinated public health efforts, we can mitigate the threat of emerging pathogens and the world’s health security.

Editorial 2 : Preparing India for water stress, climate resilience

Introduction

As the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts a hotter summer and longer heat waves from April to June, India must also prepare for water stress along with climate resilience. This Earth Day (April 22) should be a wake-up call as theclimate is the economy now.

The current scenario

• India houses 18% of the world’s population on 2.4% of the earth’s surface area and has just 4% of global freshwater resources.
• Nearly half its rivers are polluted, and 150 of its primary reservoirs are currently at just 38% of their total live storage capacity.
•  Further, it is the largest user of groundwater in the world. And three-quarters of India’s districts are hotspots for extreme climate events.
• Against this backdrop, India has invested heavily in disaster preparedness, but the nature of climatic shocks will continue to change.
• There will be sudden shocks (heavy rainfall, rapid declines in water availability) as well as slow onset but periodic stresses (reduced water retention in soils, changes in trend lines for rainfall).
• Seasonal disaster preparedness and responses are no longer sufficient to tackle climate risks.
• Moreover, climate action cannot be left to a few sectors or businesses. Nor can environmental sustainability be reduced to sapling plantation drives over a few days.

Water flows through the economy

• Water connects our hydrological, food, and energy systems, impacting millions of people.
• Precipitation is the primary source of soil moisture and water stored in vegetation (green water) and the water available in rivers and aquifers (blue water).
• Both blue and green water impact the food we grow — irrigating crops, influencing harvests, and being critical to the economy.
• But this sector that employs the most is increasingly climate vulnerable.
• The India Employment Report 2024 shows that agriculture still employs around 45% of the population and absorbs most of the country’s labour force.
• At the same time, a Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) study showed that monsoon rainfall is changing patterns in India, with 55% of ‘tehsils’ or sub-districts seeing a significant increase of more than 10% in southwest monsoon rainfall in the last decade, compared to the previous three.
• But this increased rainfall is frequently coming from short-duration, heavy rain, affecting crop sowing, irrigation and harvesting.
• Making the agricultural sector more resilient to climatic and water stresses matters for jobs, growth and sustainability.
• Water is also a key component of the world’s clean energy transition. Green hydrogen, seen as a crucial pillar for decarbonising industry and long-distance transport sectors, is produced using water and electricity sourced from renewables.
• Pumped storage hydropower — which acts as a natural battery and is essential to balance the power grid load — is an important component of a clean but reliable power system.
• According to the UN World Water Development Report 2020, almost 75% of natural disasters in the last two decades were related to water.
• According to CEEW analysis, between 1970 and 2019, the number of flood associated events (such as landslides, thunderstorms and cloud bursts) increased by up to 20 times in India.
• Freshwater, one of the nine planetary boundaries, has been transgressed (2023 study).

The ingredients of water security

• Attaining water security will need a mix of the right policies, judicious use of water, including reuse of urban wastewater, and finance for adapting to a changing world.
• First, effective water governance needs policies that recognise its interactions with food and energy systems.
• Second, India needs to focus on the judicious use of blue and green water through water accounting and efficient reuse.
• Third, leverage financial tools to raise money for climate adaptation in the water sector.

Way forward

• Expectations that systemic change will occur overnight are unrealistic.
• But it is possible to make a start by pursuing more coherence in water, energy and climate policies, creating data-driven baselines to increase water savings, and enabling new financial instruments and markets for adaptation investments.
• A water-secure economy is the first step towards a climate-resilient one.

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