Category:

Health

Massive cyberattacks that shook the world in 2020

The biggest of them perhaps came to light towards the end of the year when cybersecurity company FireEye earlier this month revealing that it became a target of hackers who accessed tools that the company uses to test its customers’ security.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, suspected Russian hackers installed a malware in the Orion software sold by the IT management company SolarWinds, and accessed sensitive data belonging to several US government agencies, at least one hospital and a university.

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Studies find having Covid-19 may protect against reinfection

Researchers found that people with antibodies from natural infections were “at much lower risk … on the order of the same kind of protection you’d get from an effective vaccine,” of getting the virus again, said Dr. Ned Sharpless, director of the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
“We don’t know how long-lasting this immunity is,”said Joshua Wolf, an infectious disease specialist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis added. Cases of people getting Covid-19 more than once have been confirmed, so “people still need to protect themselves and others by preventing reinfection.” he said.

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Another new coronavirus variant found in Nigeria, says Africa CDC

The news comes after Britain and South Africa both reported new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that appear to be more contagious, leading to new travel restrictions and turmoil in markets.

“It’s a separate lineage from the UK and the South African lineages,” John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told an online news conference from Addis Ababa.

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COVID-19 immunity lasts at least 8 months hope for longevity of vaccinations Study

While earlier studies have shown that antibodies against the coronavirus wane after the first few months of infection, raising concerns that people may lose immunity quickly, the new research, published in the journal Science Immunology, puts these concerns to rest.

The scientists believe the findings give hope to the efficacy of any vaccine against the virus, and also explains why there have been very few examples of genuine reinfection across the millions of those who have tested positive for the virus globally.

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Gas leak in AP unit operational negligence, says NGT; directs safety audit of pharma units

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel held that the cause of Benzimidazole gas leakage at Sainor Life Sciences factory at Parwada industrial area was operational negligence of the management and its employees,

There were serious lapses in not following standard safety norms under the said rules requiring onsite and offsite emergency plans, conducting mock drills every six months and undertaking manufacture of Benzimidazole without consent.

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