Health & Science

• Thursday, January 29th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Dengue epidemic in Bolivia; worst outbreak in 22 years

  

  Landlocked Bolivia has declared a health emergency as a dengue fever epidemic spreads across much of the country. Health officials say it is the worst outbreak in 22 years and at least three people are known to have died from the disease.

• Sunday, January 25th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  “Low intensity” dengue epidemics in Paraguay

  

  The Paraguayan government admitted a “low intensity” dengue epidemics following 360 cases reported in hospital emergencies of which 179 remain highly “suspicious” of having been contaminated by the mosquito transmitted disease.

• Sunday, January 25th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Low-oxygen areas in oceans linked to global warming

  

  Unchecked global warming would leave ocean dwellers gasping for breath according to an article in the latest edition of Nature Geoscience. Dead zones are low-oxygen areas in the ocean where higher life forms such as fish, crabs and clams are not able to live. In shallow coastal regions, these zones can be caused by runoff of excess fertilizers from farming.

• Thursday, January 22nd 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Dengue emergency in Bolivia with 1.000 reported cases

  

  Bolivian officials have declared a health emergency after three deaths attributed to dengue hemorrhagic fever, the often-lethal form of a mosquito-borne disease that more than 1,000 Bolivians are thought to have contracted since November.

• Wednesday, January 21st 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  UN meeting to address danger to global water supplies

  

  Water supplies for over a billion people around the world are under threat from increasing populations, expanding cities, industrialization, climate change and even the rising demand for food, warned the United Nations, as delegates from more than 60 countries kicked off a meeting today in preparation for the upcoming World Water Forum.

• Wednesday, January 14th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  More evidence that Asians first marched into the Americas

  

  A study has revealed genetic links between people who inhabited northern Peru more than 1,000 years ago and the Japanese, according to reports from El Comercio from Lima, one of the country leading newspapers.

• Wednesday, January 14th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Dengue emergency in Bolivia's most populated provinces

  

  Bolivia declared this week a state of sanitary emergency in four of the country's provinces following a bout of 250 reported cases of dengue, a disease transmitted by the “Aedes Aegypti” and which can be deadly in its haemorrhagic strain.

• Tuesday, January 13th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Pesticides and chemicals ban controversy in the EU

  

  The European Parliament has voted to tighten rules on pesticide use and ban at least 22 chemicals deemed harmful to human health. The UK government, the Conservatives and the National Farmers' Union all oppose the new rules, saying they could hit yields and increase food prices. The rules have not yet been approved by the 27 member states' governments.

• Tuesday, January 13th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  First 2009 (mild) dengue case reported in Paraguay

  

  Paraguayan health officials confirmed the first case of dengue fever here so far this year and announced a health blockade along the border with Argentina after the deaths of two men from yellow fever in the neighbouring country.

• Saturday, January 10th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Lipotimia bout forces Cristina Kirchner to postpone trip to Cuba

  

  Argentina's president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, suffering from an acute bout of low blood pressure has been forced to postpone for a week her planned visits to Cuba and Venezuela that should have begun this Sunday, according to reliable government sources reports the Buenos Aires media