Perspective and commentary

Nowadays the world is at battle to combat a virus called Coronavirus Disease 2019 or COVID-19. This is infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that belongs to a group called Coronaviridae. The disease was first identified in 2019 in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in China and has since spread globally and resulted in the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic.

Given the lack of reliable information about COVID-19, I am listing well-researched information of what is currently known about this virus and the disease it causes.

What is the origin of the virus?

In nature, bats are the natural reservoir for many such viruses. The virus replicates inside bats and somehow finds its way to other species. When the virus crosses the species barrier and jumps to humans it is called zoonosis. The first transmission to humans is believed to have occurred in Wuhan and then started passing from person to person when an infected person coughed or sneezed. It is said that a single cough can spray around 3,000 droplets that can travel several metres.

How long does it stay active on a surface?

The droplets from a cough stay suspended in the air for up to 10 minutes. If it manages to land on a person’s face or body, it increases chances of direct transmission of the virus through inhalation. If the droplet lands on a surface such as cloth, it remains active for up to three hours. On other surfaces such as plastic or metal, it has been known to remain active for two to three days.

What happens to your body when it is infected?

The virus uses the outer spike proteins that surround its core, which has given it the name corona (crown) to attach to receptors in the epithelial cells of the lungs via Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors. The virus then fuses its membrane with the cell’s membrane and releases its RNA into the cell. A study found that the virus is able to enter more in cells that have an acidicnatureas its entry is based on pH-dependent endocytosis.It then takes advantage of the lung’s cellarchitecture to duplicate its RNA and capsid and envelope proteins. Once thousands of new RNA and proteins have been replicated, they are assembled into thousands of new viruses in golgi bodies and endoplasmic reticulum.

What is the incubation period for the virus?

In the beginning, when the virus is replicating,the infected persondoes not exhibit any overt symptoms. The period between first exposure to an infection and appearance of the first symptoms is called the incubation period. In the case of this virus, the incubation period is believed to be four to fourteendaysin which the virus replicates itself and produces thousands of copiesof itself.

What are the symptoms?

The key symptomof the diseases caused by the virus is dry cough with fever and/or difficulty in breathing.

Who is at risk?

Everyone! Who doesn’t care about their health?However, people with chronic heart disease, chronic lung disease, kidney failure, and immuno-suppressed diabetic patients are at greater risk.

Can such a disease wipe out the human race?

No. But it can definitely cause severe damage. However, with each outbreak of such diseasespeople fear the extinction of the human race. Historically, infectious diseaseswere an existential threat to humanity and killed a large number of people.

Nowadays, science fiction has become our reality and we don’t even think about it. Some recent breakthroughs will change our lives and how we perceive normalcy. Human beings are evolving even as viruses change their strains.

Changes in genetic coding have an impact on the being that carries it. In the 1990s, in an effort to treat maternal infertility resulted in babies that carried genetic information from three humans, making them the first humans to have three genetic parents. This was impressive but also extremely expensive and complicated. This has now changed with a revolutionary technology called CRISPR (clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats). The cost has reduced by 99%. In this world, bacteria and viruses have been fighting since the beginning of life. The virus called Bacteriophageshuntsbacteria in the ocean and kills 40% of them every single day. The virus does this by inserting their own genetic material into the bacteria and taking them over for use of its own re-production. The bacteria tries to resist but generally failsas their protection tools are not strong enough.

Sometimes, a bacterium survives the attack and developsan effective anti-virus system. The bacteria save a part of the virus’ genetic material in their own genetic code in a DNA archive system called CRISPR. When the virus attacks again, the bacterium quickly makes an RNA copy from the DNA archive and arms a defensive weapon in the form of a protein called cas9. The protein scans the bacterium for the virus by comparing its genetic material with the sample in the archival memory. When it finds a 100% match, it removes the virus’ genetic material to render it useless and protect the bacteriumfrom the attack.

A scientific revolution started when scientists discovered that the CRISPR system can be programmed. In addition to being precise, cheap, and easy, CRISPR offers the possibility of editing life cells to switch genes on and off. In 2015 scientists used CRISPR to cut HIV virus from living cells of patients in a laboratory. This proved that such interventions were possible. A year later, scientists carried out a large-scale project with rats that had the HIV virus in their cells. By simply injecting CRISPR into the rat’s tails, they were able to remove more than 50% of the virus from cells in their body. The first clinical trial for a CRISPR cancer treatment on human patients was approved in early 2016. A month later, Chinese scientists announced that they would treat lung cancer patients with immune cells modified with CRISPR. With a powerful tool like CRISPR, we may be able to cure thousands of diseases. In 2015 and 2016, Chinese scientists experimented with human embryos and were partially successful in their second attempt. There are enormous challenges in gene editing embryos and scientists are working on resolving them.

Irrespective of your personal view of genetic engineering, this technology will affect you. As the technology evolves and gets more refined, more people may argue that not using genetic engineering is unethical as it condemns people to preventable suffering and death. However, as soon as the first genetically engineered child is born, a door will open that cannot be closed. If you make your offspring immune to Alzheimer’s, why not also give them an enhanced metabolism? How about height and muscular structure? Better hair? Why not throw in perfect vision?

As genetic engineering becomes more ‘normal’ and our knowledge improves, we could solve many of our biggest health challenges. Today, we produce many chemicals by genetically engineering life-forms. This includes life-saving clotting proteins/factors, growth hormones and insulin. Earlier, we used to harvest these chemical from the organs of animals.

Recently the Indian Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR) Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) in New Delhi made a major breakthrough. It developed a CRISPR Cas9-based paper strip test to identify the RNA sequence of novel coronavirus in the samples of suspected persons and deliver result in 20 to 25 minutes. This test costs INR 500while the qRtPCR (quantitative Real time Polymerase Chain Reaction) test that costs INR 4,500 and takes hours to complete.

By Mohd Murtaza

Mohd Murtaza is a doctoral scholar in the Cytogenetic and Molecular Biology laboratory, Centre of Research for Development at University of Kashmir

Consider this irony: On the one hand, Magsaysay awardee Sonam Wangchuk received the Rolex Award for his endeavour to address water scarcity in Ladakh through creation of artificial glaciers. On the other hand, the largest natural glacier outside the Polar Regions i.e. Siachen glacier was recently opened for tourist consumption by Government of India.

The tourism industry has emerged as Ladakh’s largest economic sector in recent times. The popular claim that a ‘majority’ of Ladakhis gain economic benefit from tourism remains contentious. There is no disputing the fact that the current form of tourism has had a negative impact on Ladakh’s ecology. Even now, there is no holistic approach to mitigating this issue. In addition, this form of tourism has also harmed the close-knit community in Ladakh and its culture.

Tourist inflow, especially domestic ones, is expected to increase significantly in the coming years as it has in the recent past. Ladakh has become a ‘Disney World’ for the Indian bourgeois. For the contemporary Indian bourgeois class, who love to travel to ‘consume’ a place, Ladakh represents an aspirational fantasy world that includes mysticism, romance, danger, magic, and now, the ‘world’s highest battle field’, the Siachen glacier.

The opening of Siachen glacier for tourism will further bolster Ladakh’s image as an ‘adventure’ and a ‘therapeutic’ destination. Ladakh’s political tycoons and emerging statesmen use very affective tones when commenting on opening Siachen glacier for tourists. This further entices tourists and makes them more curious about Ladakh. How can a tweet like this fail to kindle one’s imagination: “The Indian citizens should be able to witness the highest battlefield and experience the atmosphere which the armed forces endure every day” (emphasis added). This tweet is a heavily loaded text that not only invites domestic tourists to visit Siachen but also politicises it as a ‘nationalistic’ space. This raises many questions. For instance, is Siachen glacier going to be another ‘nationalistic space’ where citizens will go to show/prove their nationalism? Instead, Ladakh’s political custodians should have commented on the fragile ecology of Ladakh and tried to sensitise locals and tourists about the environmental challenges posed by tourism and security forces in the area.

The 72km-long Siachen glacier has already been polluted by the huge deployment of soldiers by India and Pakistan and this ‘new’ order of mass tourist consumption will wreck further environmental havoc. We must not forget that Siachen glacier is the main source of drinking and irrigation water for thousands of people in Nubra valley and beyond. Furthermore, the glacier also supports a rich diversity of biodiversity. According to data in the public domain there are around 20,000 Indian and Pakistani troops, in addition to about 1,000 local porters, stationed on Siachen glacier since 1984. The impact of such anthropocentric actions has been outlined in an article published by The Tribune. It quotes Maj. Gen. J.S. Dillion, former GOC of Siachen Division, who said, “Siachen is the world’s biggest and the highest garbage dump, from where nothing comes back.” The garbage mainly consists of plastic, remains of crashed helicopters, worn-out gun barrels, splinters from gun shelling, empty fuel barrels, burnt shelters, telephone wires, skid boards, para-dropping boards, edible oil containers, canisters, gunny bags, rotten vegetables, spoilt meat, expired tinned meat, cartons, wrappers, shoes, clothing, ration items etc. Items damaged or lost due to misjudged para-dropping add to this list as do human bodies that cannot be recovered.

The garbage turns into permanent pollutants as snowfall buries waste deeper in the ice. Romesh Bhattarcharji, an avid Indian trekker and mountaineer, has written in his book Ladakh: Changing, yet unchanged about the devastation of the glacier. He writes, “Only 20 years ago Siachen was 72km long. It is shorter today because of the heat generated by helicopters and diesel trucks and generators, dumped chemicals, plastics, garbage, human waste, and more than 1,000 litres of gas burnt to cook food on that poor hapless glacier”.

In spite of this, the administration has so far not adopted a strategy to salvage garbage from the glacier. One can easily imagine what we are going to do to the hapless glacier with this new state-sponsored mass-consumption diktat. We need to worry about the toxicity of the water that emerges from the glacier and is consumed by people. Dr. S.C Jain, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Punjab University says, “Plastic and metals are the most hazardous of solid wastes being littered at Siachen. The toxification begins the moment metals and plastic come in contact with water…Elements like cobalt, cadmium, chromium etc. have been confirmed in these toxins.” Despite this, nobody seems ready to confront these critical issues. Instead we are asked to believe that ‘vikas’ or ‘development’ has started with the opening of Siachen for tourists.

In addition to these challenges, human waste is also a major problem on Siachen. Human excreta remain on the glacier as there is no room for creating toilets, septic tanks or ways to collect such excreta. Also, given the extreme cold, human waste does not degenerate as it does at lower elevations. Humans are said to be the most intelligent animals on the planet. Then why are we giving the clean glacier heaps of human excrement in return for its priceless gifts?

We should have considered and discussed these issues before opening Siachen for tourism. These problems will only worsen now. Climate change is already melting glaciers and garbage accelerates this process. Water sources for local communities is already toxified and we are going to proliferate it further by such (in)decisions.

Unfortunately, the environmental havoc created by both armies has seldom been highlighted by environmentalists and administrators. Though tourism is a lucrative business in Ladakh today, we need to consider its impact on our environment. If we do not act on these issues now, the glacier will soon be reduced to a memory. The very survival of local communities and biodiversity is at stake. As mentioned earlier, tourism in Ladakh is only going to increase as contemporary tourists travel to consume places and improve their social status. Travel has now become a commodity in a highly commercialised culture and an important aspect of bourgeois life. The exoticised images of Ladakh have gained currency in the tourism discourse and attract even more consumers. Seeing this pattern of tourism, we are going to turn Saichen into a mass-tourist consumption site in no time with negative environmental and socio-cultural repercussions. We must act to save Siachen glacier before it turns into a nightmare. If we don’t raise our voices today, Ladakh will soon change beyond recognition.

By Stanzin Stamdin

Stanzin Stamdin (Nubra) teaches English at Government Higher Secondary School, Drass, Kargil.