Current Affairs Question - 23 March 2020

Explanation :

• Huntington’s disease, also known as Huntington's chorea, is a fatal genetic disorder that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain.
• It deteriorates a person’s physical and mental abilities usually during their prime working years and has no cure.
• It is known as the quintessential family disease because every child of a parent with HD has a 50/50 chance of inheriting the faulty gene.

Cause

• It is caused by an expansion of a repeating CAG triplet series in the hunting in gene on chromosome 4, which results in a protein with an abnormally long polyglutamine sequence.

Symptoms

• Personality changes, mood swings & depression
• Forgetfulness & impaired judgment
• Unsteady gait & involuntary movements (chorea)
• Slurred speech, difficulty in swallowing & significant weight loss

Treatment

• There is currently no cure for Huntington's disease and no way to slow or stop the brain changes it causes. Treatments focus on managing symptoms.

Explanation :

• Teesta River (or Tista River) is a 315 km long river that rises in the eastern Himalayas, flows through the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal .
• The river originates from the Pahunri (or Teesta Kangse) glacier above 7,068 metres (23,189 ft), and flows southward through gorges and rapids in the Sikkim Himalaya.
• It is joined by the river Rangpo Chu at Rangpo settlement (which is the entrance to East-Sikkim) and then it forms a boundary between Sikkim and West Bengal. The River then flows through Darjeeling district.
• The main tributary of river Teesta, the Rangit River meets it just before the Teesta bridge.
• Teesta joins the Bramhaputra River (Jamuna River) at Fulchhari in Bangladesh.