Health Technology & Diseases

GS Paper: GS Paper III | Subject: Science & Technology | Last updated: 2026-06-26

---

Prelims

(Key facts, data, schemes, laws, organizations — MCQ-ready points)

KRAS-Targeting Pill for Pancreatic Cancer (Indian Express, 04-06-2026)

• New once-daily oral pill (a KRAS inhibitor) nearly doubled survival time in advanced pancreatic cancer in a large international trial (results presented at the ASCO — American Society of Clinical Oncology — meeting)
• Target — KRAS gene: a cancer-driving mutation present in ~90% of pancreatic tumours; long considered "undruggable"
• Why pancreatic cancer matters: one of the deadliest cancers — 5-year survival only ~13%; ~7% of all cancer deaths
• Median survival for advanced disease barely improved in decades — ~6 months (late 1990s) → ~9–12 months today; this pill is a step-change

WHO — Ebola Outbreak in DR Congo (Indian Express, 04-06-2026)

• WHO says confirmed cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Ebola outbreak rose to 344
• WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: the outbreak "had a big head start" — flagged weak early response / governance gaps
• Ebola = viral haemorrhagic fever; recurrent in Central/West Africa

Dengue Vaccine — DengiAll & the ADE Risk (The Hindu, 15-06-2026)

• 2 deaths in Brazil during its Butantan-DV dengue-vaccine campaign → suspended on 8 June; India's upcoming DengiAll (Panacea Biotec + ICMR) is "similar, if not identical"
• Both are live-attenuated & tetravalent — a physical mix of all 4 dengue serotypes (DENV-1/-2/-3/-4), which differ in their envelope (E) proteins
• Key risk = Antibody-Dependent Enhancement (ADE): when cross-reactive antibody levels fall, they enhance rather than block a new infection → severe/fatal dengue (a serious adverse event)
• Precedent: Dengvaxia (Sanofi) caused severe events in the Philippines (8 lakh children) and behaved monovalently (immunity only to DENV-4) — mixing 4 live viruses doesn't guarantee balanced immunity; tech traces to US NIH (TV003/TV005); Qdenga (Takeda) India approval imminent
• DengiAll Phase-3 (with ICMR) enrolled 10,335 volunteers (followed 2 yrs)

Nipah Virus — Kerala (Kozhikode) (The Hindu, 15-06-2026)

• A fresh Nipah infection reported in Kozhikode; the LoP flagged coordination gaps in containment
• Nipah = zoonotic (fruit-bat reservoir), high case-fatality, recurrent in Kerala — a One Health concern

Nipah — One Health Lessons & Kerala's "Outbreak Calendar" (The Hindu, 17-06-2026)

• WHO classifies Nipah a "priority pathogen" (high lethality + outbreak/pandemic potential); it has also flagged avian influenza and Kyasanur Forest Disease for Kerala. The current case: a 43-year-old from Ramanattukara, Kozhikode, on ventilator; no fresh cases after intensive contact-tracing & screening — a sign of Kerala's robust health system
• History: the 2018 Kerala outbreak caused 17 deaths / 23 affected (index patient infected 15 others, incl. health workers); recurrences in 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025; a devastating 2001 outbreak in West Bengal (+2007); Jan 2026 — 2 lab-confirmed cases in WB (health workers), contained
• One Health framing: human encroachment into fruit-bat habitats + consuming bat-contaminated fruit/water drives spill-over → response must weigh environmental + animal + human factors, not health care alone
• Kerala "outbreak calendar": the State will map seasonal & regional disease patterns (e.g. Nipah recurs in Perambra, Kozhikode, May–Sept) to give the public-health system predictive capacity for prevention & response

16 Fixed-Dose Combination (FDC) Drugs Banned (The Hindu, 21-06-2026)

• The Union Health Ministry banned 16 FDC medications "in public interest", holding they lack therapeutic justification and could harm patients — covering certain dermatological, analgesic/antispasmodic and antibiotic-based formulations
• FDC = a single dosage form combining two or more active drugs in a fixed ratio; rational FDCs aid compliance/efficacy, but irrational combinations can be ineffective or unsafe
• Banned examples: aspirin (acetyl salicylic acid) + ethoheptazine; dicyclomine + paracetamol + clidinium bromide (± chlordiazepoxide); gliclazide + chromium picolinate; paracetamol + lignocaine; several antibiotic combos (e.g. amoxicillin + serratiopeptidase; amoxicillin + cloxacillin) — irrational antibiotic FDCs feed antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
• Continues the regulator's recent drive against unsafe formulations (cf. the cough-syrup OTC curbs); FDCs are regulated under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act/Rules

QR-Code Track-and-Trace Expanded (Drugs Rules, 1945) (The Hindu, 26-06-2026)

• The Health Ministry amended the Drugs Rules, 1945 to expand Schedule H2 under the QR-code-based track-and-trace framework: now covers all vaccines, all antimicrobials, narcotic & psychotropic drugs (under the NDPS Act, 1985), and all anti-cancer drugs
• Manufacturers must print/affix a barcode or QR code on the primary packaging (or secondary, if space is short) storing the unique product ID, generic & brand names, manufacturer details, batch number, mfg/expiry dates and licence number — verifiable across the supply chain to curb spurious/counterfeit medicines
• Builds on the earlier mandate for the top-300 brands and complements the recent cough-syrup OTC curbs / FDC bans — part of a wider drive on drug quality (esp. after adulterated-syrup child deaths); regulated under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940

Air Suvidha 2.0 — Ebola Screening at Airports (The Hindu, 26-06-2026)

• The Ministry of Civil Aviation + Delhi International Airport (DIAL) launched Air Suvidha 2.0, an upgraded contactless passenger health self-declaration portal, for public-health surveillance against the ongoing Ebola outbreak — passengers submit a 21-day travel & exposure history + symptoms before immigration (fillable 24 hrs in advance)
• The WHO declared the Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo & Uganda a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 17 May 2026; the portal (revived from its COVID-era avatar) operationalises point-of-entry screening under the International Health Regulations (IHR, 2005)

---

Mains

(Analysis, dimensions, significance, critique, policy angles — for 10/15 mark answers)

Drug-Quality Governance & Counterfeit Medicines (The Hindu, 26-06-2026)

• Why track-and-trace matters: spurious/sub-standard medicines (recall the adulterated-cough-syrup deaths) endanger lives and India's reputation as "pharmacy of the world"; extending QR-based serialisation to high-risk categories (vaccines, antibiotics, narcotics, anti-cancer) lets regulators and patients authenticate drugs across the supply chain — and antibiotic authenticity also matters for AMR control
• Implementation challenge: coverage is incremental (top brands → these categories), and the gain depends on end-to-end verification, MSME-manufacturer compliance cost, and scanning at pharmacy/patient level — a regulatory-capacity question (CDSCO/State drug controllers)
• Border health security (Air Suvidha 2.0): point-of-entry screening shows IHR-based preparedness, but the lesson of past outbreaks is that airport screening is a porous first line — it must sit atop surveillance (IDSP/IHIP), One Health, and health-system readiness rather than substitute for them
• UPSC angle: drug regulation (CDSCO, Drugs & Cosmetics Act), counterfeit medicines & "pharmacy of the world", AMR, IHR 2005 & point-of-entry screening, epidemic preparedness (Ebola/PHEIC)

Targeted Therapy & the "Undruggable" Frontier (Indian Express, 04-06-2026)

• Precision oncology: Cracking KRAS shows the shift from broad chemotherapy to mutation-targeted drugs — converts a near-untreatable cancer into a manageable one, a template for other "undruggable" targets
• Access & affordability question for India: Such targeted oral drugs are typically very expensive and patent-protected → equity concern for a country with high cancer burden; strengthens case for patent flexibilities (compulsory licensing), generics, and public cancer-care financing
• Epidemic-preparedness link (Ebola): "Head start" of the DRC outbreak underlines that early detection + surveillance + health-system trust decide epidemic outcomes — relevant to India's IDSP and One Health framework
• UPSC angle: Gene-targeted therapy, precision medicine, drug affordability & IPR, non-communicable disease burden, global epidemic governance (WHO, IHR)

Vaccine Safety & Pharmacovigilance — the DengiAll Caution (The Hindu, 15-06-2026)

• A vaccine that can worsen disease: dengue is unusual — ADE means an imperfect/ waning immune response can make the next infection deadlier, and "tetravalent" on paper may not mean balanced protection in practice (Dengvaxia lesson). Before rollout India must mandate type-specific antibody testing across all 4 serotypes and long-duration pharmacovigilance with periodic blood monitoring
• Risk communication: Brazil's 0.008% severe-event rate is tiny at population scale, but each death corrodes trust → transparent, real-time safety surveillance is essential for uptake (post-Covid vaccine-hesitancy context)
• UPSC angle: vaccine platforms (live-attenuated), ADE, clinical-trial phases, drug regulator (CDSCO), pharmacovigilance, One Health (Nipah), vaccine hesitancy & risk communication