Health & Science

• Thursday, January 28th 2016 - 05:50 UTC

  Airlines offering refunds to passengers booked to fly to countries with Zika cases

  

  Some airlines, including those serving the Caribbean, have started offering refunds to passengers who had been booked to fly to countries where cases of the Zika virus have been confirmed. United Airlines, American Airlines and British Airways are allowing passengers to back out of travel.

• Tuesday, January 26th 2016 - 08:06 UTC

  Pan American Health Organization statement on Zika virus transmission and prevention

  

  Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that is new to the Americas. Since Brazil reported the first cases of local transmission of the virus in May 2015, it has spread to 21 countries and territories* of the Americas (as of 23 January 2016).

• Tuesday, January 26th 2016 - 07:46 UTC

  UK government chief scientist in Chile to attend congress on education and science

  

  Sir Mark Walport, the British Government Chief Scientific Adviser and Head of Science and Engineering Profession, arrived in Chile on 21 January. He has been invited by the Chilean Senate to participate in the Futures Congress, in which national and international scientists, analysts and thinkers, analyze the most significant issues, challenges and achievements in the world of science.

• Saturday, January 23rd 2016 - 08:28 UTC

  Argentina now denies dengue outbreak is an 'epidemic'.

  

  Even as the number of new cases of dengue fever continued to rise in Argentina, the Health Ministry performed a rapid about-face and disavowed a statement made on Wednesday that the outbreak constituted “an epidemic.”

• Friday, January 22nd 2016 - 07:17 UTC

  Argentina admits ”epidemic of (mosquito-borne) dengue fever”, including Buenos Aires city

  

  The first cases of Dengue fever struck Buenos Aires City this week as a spate of outbreaks in Greater Buenos Aires and across Argentina’s northeast were labeled “an epidemic” by Health Minister Jorge Lemus.

• Friday, January 22nd 2016 - 06:58 UTC

  Zika virus epidemic spreads in the region; women advised to delay pregnancy

  

  The mosquito-borne Zika virus has already infected more than 13,500 people in Colombia and could hit as many as 700,000, the health minister said on Wednesday. According to Pan-American Health Organization figures, the country is second only to Brazil in infection rates, health minister Alejandro Gaviria told journalists.

• Tuesday, January 19th 2016 - 07:51 UTC

  Fourteen countries in a US travel alert for pregnant women because of Zika virus

  

  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued travel alert for people traveling to the Caribbean and other areas that have confirmed transmission of the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

• Tuesday, January 19th 2016 - 07:04 UTC

  Ice Patrol HMS Protector concludes historic five week patrol to East Antarctica and Ross Sea

  

  The Royal Navy’s Ice Patrol ship has just completed a historic five week patrol to the East Antarctic and Ross Sea. HMS Protector is the first Royal Navy, or UK Government, vessel to have visited the region in 80 years or to have travelled so far south having dipped below 77 degrees latitude.

• Friday, January 15th 2016 - 08:06 UTC

  Strong hints of a vast canyon system hidden under the Antarctic ice sheet

  

  A vast, previously unrecognized canyon system could be hidden under the Antarctic ice sheet. Hints of its presence are seen in the shape of the white continent's surface, in a largely unexplored region called Princess Elizabeth Land. If confirmed by a proper geophysical survey - now under way - the winding canyon network would be over 1,000km long and in places as much as 1km deep.

• Tuesday, January 12th 2016 - 06:30 UTC

  Five cups of coffee a day good for the heart and to combat diabetes, says 10-year study

  

  A major US study has found that people who drink up to five cups of coffee daily are less likely to die from health issues such as heart disease and diabetes compared to those who don’t drink coffee at all. The 10-year study found that the more coffee people drank, the less likely they were to die early. The results were similar with people who drank decaffeinated coffee.