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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, December 2nd 2025 - 19:18 UTC

Health & Science

  • Friday, August 22nd 2025 - 20:50 UTC

    Brazil: Over 350 dead Magellanic penguins found

    The birds were in such a state of decomposition that it was impossible to determine their cause of death

    Over 350 Magellanic penguins were found lifeless along the coast of Ilha Comprida in São Paulo, Brazil, the Cananéia Research Institute (IPeC) announced this week. The birds, discovered over four consecutive days, were in an advanced state of decomposition, which made it impossible to determine the exact cause of death.

  • Thursday, August 21st 2025 - 20:02 UTC

    New Covid-19 variants detected in Uruguay

    These new variants “have not led to increases in hospitalizations or serious cases,” Lustemberg noted

    Uruguay's Ministry of Public Health (MSP) has confirmed the circulation in the country of the new Covid-19 “Frankenstein” (XFG) and “Nimbus” (NB.1.8.1) variants. The discovery was made through the country's genomic surveillance system after analyzing samples from sentinel centers.

  • Thursday, August 21st 2025 - 10:25 UTC

    Scientists on a joint expedition to “visualize the deep off the Uruguayan coast”

    R/V Falkor (Too) from the California based Schmidt Ocean Institute is hosting a team of scientists from Uruguay’s main University for a month long expedition

    This Next Friday August 22nd, R/V Falkor (too) from the California based Schmidt Ocean Institute, departs with a team of scientists from Uruguay’s main University for a month long expedition to “visualize the deep off the Uruguayan coast”.

  • Thursday, August 21st 2025 - 06:45 UTC

    Liberal Uruguay and the right to die (legal assisted dying), The Economist

    Uruguay’s support for assisted dying is built on a strikingly secular and liberal tradition that is unique in the region and was promoted by early political leaders.

    Pablo Canepa was a normal, healthy 35-year-old Uruguayan. Handsome and extroverted, he was a talented graphic designer who loved to host barbecues with his girlfriend and was fanatical about Nacional, a local football team. Taking a shower in March 2022, he suddenly felt dizzy. He thought little of it.

  • Friday, August 15th 2025 - 10:53 UTC

    Fentanyl scandal splashing Milei's rivals leading up to midterms

    Fentanyl is between 50 and 100 times more potent than morphine

    The death toll from contaminated medical fentanyl in Argentina has been updated to 100 people, with the Libertarian government publicly blaming HLB Pharma Group S.A., and its owner, Ariel Garcia Furfaro, for it.

  • Thursday, August 14th 2025 - 21:56 UTC

    Violence against children in Brazilian Amazon worse than elsewhere in the country

    According to the Health Ministry, 94 violent deaths of indigenous children and adolescents were recorded in the Legal Amazon in the 2021-2023 period

    A report released Thursday by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety (FBSP) showed that Children and adolescents in the Legal Amazon were exposed to different types of violence with relevant particularities compared to the rest of the South American country.

  • Tuesday, August 12th 2025 - 10:02 UTC

    President Orsi endorses Uruguay's new euthanasia bill

    Orsi conditioned the measure to all guarantees being taken

    Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi announced he was in favor of the revised “dignified death” bill about to be voted on in the House of Representatives. The proposed law would decriminalize euthanasia for mentally competent adults with incurable diseases or unbearable suffering. The new project is a modified version of a previous one approved by the House in 2022 but stalled in the Senate.

  • Tuesday, August 12th 2025 - 06:40 UTC

    Antarctic researcher remains, working for Falklands’ Dependency, 66 years ago, found in receding glacier

    Dennis Bell (left) with his fellow colleagues and the dogs that helped them to work in Antarctica. Midwinter 1959 at Admiralty Bay Base. Credit: unknown.

    The remains of an Antarctic researcher have been discovered by a Polish team among rocks exposed by a receding glacier in Antarctica. They are identified by DNA as those of Dennis ‘Tink’ Bell, a 25 year-old meteorologist who was working for the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS), the predecessor of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). He died in a crevasse on a glacier at Admiralty Bay on King George Island, situated off the Antarctic Peninsula on 26 July 1959. His body was never recovered.

  • Friday, August 8th 2025 - 09:59 UTC

    Emergency declared in Paraguay due to measles outbreak

    Authorities are focused on vaccination and raising public awareness

    Paraguay's Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare has issued an epidemiological alert due to a measles outbreak in the northern department of San Pedro. The measure was adopted after an initial case was confirmed in a five-year-old boy, which has since led to three additional cases. All four confirmed patients were unvaccinated. The first victim was apparently in contact with people from abroad.

  • Wednesday, August 6th 2025 - 10:02 UTC

    Covid-19: Frankenstein variant detected in Argentina

    “In Argentina, the current situation of SARS-CoV-2 variants is characterized by the exclusive circulation of the Omicron variant,” it was explained

    The XFG variant of Covid-19, nicknamed “Frankenstein” because it is a recombination of two Omicron lineages, has been detected in Argentina, according to the latest edition of the Health Ministry's weekly National Epidemiological Bulletin (BEN), which cited cases from late June and early July, identified through genomic surveillance