The United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration are quickly moving to determine the source of the fungal infection causing a rare form of meningitis that has killed seven people in nine states in the last few weeks, as the producer of the steroid injection apparently carrying the infection recalled all of its products.
Four members of the crew of an Italian liner are in hospital, including one who is fighting for his life, following an outbreak of bacterial meningitis. The four were admitted to hospital in the Tuscan port of Livorno on Sunday at the end of a cruise by MSC Orchestra liner. A 32-year-old Indonesian crew member is the most ill of the four.
The Royal Navy’s Ice Patrol ship HMS Protector is on her way for an eight-month deployment surveying and patrolling Antarctica. She left Portsmouth late September and is currently visiting St Helena to conduct surveys of the harbour in preparation for the building of a new jetty.
A painkiller as powerful as morphine, but without most of the side-effects, has been found in the deadly venom of the black mamba, say French scientists. The predator, which uses neurotoxins to paralyse and kill small animals, is one of the fastest and most dangerous snakes in Africa.
The Falkland Islands Government announced the appointment of David Jenkins to the post of Director of Health and Social Services. David, the current Director of Health and Education, will take up his new role with effect from January 2013 following a restructure which will see Education form a separate Directorate.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) expanded its warning to consumers about ground beef components imported from a Canadian company after the company's steaks were linked to eight Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections in Canada.
The World Health Organization, WHO, announced on Tuesday that no additional cases of acute respiratory syndrome with renal failure due to infection with a novel coronavirus have been reported.
Three navy supply ships will head for Antarctica next month to begin rebuilding a Brazilian naval base destroyed by a deadly fire in February, Defence Minister Celso Amorim said Monday.
Brazil is the world's largest market for crack and the second for overall cocaine use, researchers from the Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP) said on Wednesday.
Large volumes of methane - a potent greenhouse gas - could be locked beneath the ice-covered regions of Antarctica, according to a new study. Methane could be released into the atmosphere as ice retreats, contributing to climate warming.