Health & Science

• Tuesday, December 16th 2014 - 22:35 UTC

  Antibiotic-proof bug detected in Rio's Olympic waters

  

  Scientists at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz find enzyme-producing bacteria that requires bolder therapeutic measures. Flamengo beach unfit for swimming.

• Tuesday, December 2nd 2014 - 06:15 UTC

  Imported chikungunya reaches UK: 197 cases reported so far

  

  British public health officials say they are grappling with an escalating number of cases of the debilitating chikungunya virus, as holidaymakers return from Caribbean countries.

• Saturday, November 29th 2014 - 07:30 UTC

  Health professionals from Latam and Caribbean train for management of Ebola

  

  Health professionals from more than 30 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean will receive training in clinical management of Ebola in three upcoming workshops sponsored by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). The workshops are part of a series of PAHO/WHO actions intended to help countries strengthen their preparedness for potential cases of Ebola.

• Friday, November 28th 2014 - 06:08 UTC

  World health experts meet to discuss the high levels of antibiotic resistance

  

  Next week, 2-3 December, senior government representatives from more than 30 countries are expected to agree on a pilot system for collecting data on antibiotic resistance—a major step forward in addressing this threat to global public health.

• Thursday, November 27th 2014 - 06:50 UTC

  Antarctica sea ice thicker than anticipated reveals an autonomous sub

  

  A novel autonomous sub has acquired the first detailed, high-resolution 3D maps of Antarctic sea ice. Released from a ship, the vehicle crisscrossed the underside of the floes, using upward-looking sonar to measure their shape.

• Friday, November 21st 2014 - 07:40 UTC

  UN reveals major gaps in water and sanitation, especially in rural areas

  

  Global efforts to provide improved water and sanitation for all are gaining momentum, but serious gaps in funding continue to hamper progress, according to a new report from the World Health Organization on behalf of UN-Water.

• Wednesday, November 19th 2014 - 04:18 UTC

  Bird flu highly contagious H5N8 strain in England, Netherlands and Germany

  

  Bird flu on a duck farm in northern England is the highly contagious H5N8 strain, the same form of the virus already discovered in Germany and the Netherlands, Britain's farm ministry confirmed on Tuesday.

• Wednesday, November 19th 2014 - 04:07 UTC

  E-cigarettes make “Vape” word of the year, says Oxford English Dictionary

  

  Oxford English Dictionary named “vape” - the word used for drawing on an electronic cigarette instead of a burning stick of tobacco – as its 2014 word of the year.“You are thirty times more likely to come across the word 'vape' than you were two years ago, and usage has more than doubled in the past year,” staff editors have said.

• Friday, November 14th 2014 - 08:03 UTC

  Fears of a new Chikungunya viral strain in Brazil with the coming of summer

  

  The Chikungunya outbreak which continues to affect thousands of Caribbean residents since it first appeared in St. Martin last year has been relatively self-limiting in the United States, due to the fact that the current strain only spreads through the Aedes egypti mosquito vector, which is uncommon on the US Eastern seaboard.

• Thursday, November 13th 2014 - 07:46 UTC

  Europe makes history successfully landing spacecraft on a comet, a ten year precision cosmic chase

  

  A European spacecraft made history Wednesday by successfully landing on the icy, dusty surface of a speeding comet, an audacious cosmic first designed to answer big questions about the origin of the universe. The landing on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko required immense precision, as even the slightest error could have resulted in cosmic calamity.