Panic in the time of cholera
Why in The News?
Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease caused by contaminated water or food, causing severe symptoms like vomiting and weakness, especially in individuals with low immunity, malnourished children, and those with HIV/AIDS.
Global Cholera Crisis and the Need for Sustainable Solutions
Cholera and Climate Change Impact
- Acute diarrhoeal illness known as cholera is brought on by consuming food or water infected with vibrio cholerae.
- Individuals with HIV/AIDS, malnourished youngsters, and those with inadequate immunity are more likely to die.
- There are several routes for the disease to spread from person to person and from environment to environment.
- It’s audacious to read that within the next five years, there might be a “free AI powered primary-care physician for every Indian, available 24/7.” It poses important issues regarding viability, sustainability, and India’s preparedness for taking on such massive projects.
Challenges and Solutions
- There are 3.6 billion people who lack access to properly managed sanitary facilities and 2 billion who lack access to safely managed drinking water.
- Both the number of cases and reported deaths from cholera rose by 13% and 17%, respectively, in 2022.
- With cases from Africa more than doubling and those from the Middle East and Asia dropping by one-third, the geographic distribution of cholera has shifted substantially.
Shortage of Cholera Vaccines
- More dosages were requested for epidemic response between 2021 and 2023 than in the whole decade prior.
- With limited resources, the International Coordinating Group was forced to abandon the traditional two-dose vaccination schedule in favour of a single-dose strategy to reach and protect a larger population.
- There is now only one producer of cholera vaccinations; others who intend to enter the market should step up their efforts and provide doses at reasonable prices.
Climate Link and Cholera Outbreaks
- The bacterium may be more likely to emerge in warmer surface waters, but there is also evidence linking the two climate extremes: droughts can increase the concentration of the bacterium in dwindling ponds and streams, while floods might facilitate the bacterium’s spread by causing latrines to overflow into water sources.
Global Response and Global Action
- A “Global Roadmap for Ending Cholera by 2030” was created by the World Health Organization’s Global Task Force for Cholera Control (GTFCC), which emphasised the importance of multi-sectoral initiatives.
- To put an end to the global cholera catastrophe, ten significant health partners and seven member nations of the GTFCC called for swift collective action in May 2021.
- Local governments need to make investments to provide access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene because there is a growing demand on health systems across the globe.
Health crisis in India
Why in the News?
In the past three days, four incidents involving multiple deaths in India have been reported, including a tourist drowning at a beach in Goa, four girls drowning in a pond in Madhya Pradesh, two teenagers drowning in a river in Madhya Pradesh, and a 14-year-old boy saved by a trainee constable in Maharashtra.
Drowning as a Global Public Health Crisis in India
- The previous ten years have seen approximately 2.5 million avoidable deaths from drowning, 90% of which have occurred in low- and middle-income nations. Drowning is a global problem.
- In spite of this, 38,000 people die in India each year from drowning, however the problem is not regarded as a public health emergency.
- Experts from several Asian nations emphasised the necessity of community- and government-led campaigns to lower the number of drowning deaths.
- In India, unintentional falls into bodies of water accounted for more than 70% of drowning deaths in 2022; the majority of these victims were male children under the age of 14.
- There may be a reduction in drowning mortality by programs like swimming instruction for school-age children, barricading, safe places, and signs.
- Young children were first introduced to pond-based swimming pools in West Bengal through a pilot project.
- Changing perception about drowning is vital to bring it to the forefront of public health reporting.
- Experts think India still has a ways to go despite the Strategic Framework for Drowning Prevention by the Union Ministry of Health and a report on a National Strategy for Unintentional Injury.
Health care using AI is bold, but much caution first
Why in the News?
The prospect of a free AI-powered primary care physician for every Indian available 24/7 within five years raises questions about India’s feasibility, sustainability, and readiness to tackle such significant projects.
AI in Primary Health Care: Challenges and Opportunities
AI’s Impersonality and Limitations
- Because AI is impersonal, it should be treated as passive objects rather than an active participant.
- While AI is great at processing repetitive tasks, it falls short of human intelligence in areas like reasoning, planning, understanding the physical environment, and retrieving complicated information.
- The moral and ethical reasoning derived from conscious experience is not something that AI can imitate.
Data, Models, and Issues
- Critical aspects like maternal age, parity, diet, height, race, and uterus type are not taken into account by Naegele’s obstetric rule, which is based on reproductive practices from the 18th century.
- A greater predictive model can only be created with the use of enormous volumes of patient-owned personal data.
- The infrastructure needed to gather, store, and process this data will come at a high cost.
- Standardising health-care data across communities is challenging due to its complexity and personal nature.
AI’s Utility in Health Care
- AI has a significant place in some, well-defined health care jobs; this is especially true of narrow intelligence, diffusion models, and transformers.
- In medical education and research writing, large language models (LLMs) and large multimodal models (LMMs) are becoming increasingly useful instruments.
- Risks in the healthcare industry arise from the “black box” dilemma, in which AI systems’ decision-making processes are opaque and difficult to understand.
AI Governance in India
- The ethical challenges in AI development are brought to light by a recent petition filed in the Kenyan Parliament, which exposes the underpayment of laborers used to train AI models.
- India does not have comprehensive laws or regulations pertaining to AI, like the Artificial Intelligence Act of the European Union.
- AI in healthcare must be created and used with the “Do No Harm” medical ethics principle in mind.
Dark patterns
Why in the news?
India’s e-commerce sector faces challenges from unfair practices, undermining consumer trust and posing significant risks. Global regulatory bodies are combating these issues, and India’s initiatives are crucial.
Dark Patterns in India’s E-commerce Sector
- Fraudulent design techniques known as “dark patterns” take advantage of human psychology and ingenious design to influence user choices.
- These activities are especially common in India’s e-commerce industry, which is projected to grow to a 350 billion dollar market by 2030.
- Creating a false sense of urgency, concealing subscription cancellations, and employing ambiguous language are examples of common dark patterns.
- As to the Consumer Protection Act of 2019, these actions are classified as “unfair trade practices.”
- Under the Consumer Protection Act of 2019, the Department of Consumer Affairs released “Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023,” which included 13 typical dark patterns that are frequently found in e-commerce websites and applications.
- The concerns are addressed by international rules including the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the Digital Services Act (DSA).
- Dark patterns undermine transparency and user sovereignty by manipulating consumer behavior, which presents an ethical dilemma.
- To get rid of the patterns, businesses must have a user-first strategy and continuously examine and enhance their interfaces.
- Responsible innovation requires educating developers and designers about moral design principles.
- Regulations play a crucial role in protecting consumers by instituting and upholding standards that advance ethical design.
- Plug-ins and browser extensions are examples of technological solutions that empower consumers by identifying and alerting them to potential dark trends.
- India has taken important steps to safeguard customers from unfair tactics, such as the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 and new standards.