Algeria, Australia, and Tunisia have all eliminated Trachoma as a public health risk.

On 23 April 2026 the World Health Organization published a press release confirming that Algeria had eliminated Trachoma, a transmissible Bacterial disease which is thew world's leading infectious cause of blindness. On 29 April a second press release confirmed that Australia had eliminated the disease. On 14 May a third press release confirmed that Trachoma had also been eliminated in Tunisia. This brings the number of countries which have eliminated the once widespread tropical disease to 31. Countries where it has previously been eliminated are: Benin, Burundi, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, India, Iraq, Iran, Laos, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Togo, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

Regular examination of eyes at risk can help to reduce the incidence of communicable diseases such as Trachoma. Lily Solomon/World Health Organization.

Trachoma is caused by the Bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis, and spread through contact with mucus emitted from the eyes and nose during infection, and can be spread by Flies. Infections are most common among children, and the disease can spread rapidly in overcrowded environments, particularly where sanitation is poor and access to clean water is limited. The Bacterium infects the inside of the eyelid, causing a roughening which can in turn lead to damage to the surface of the eye. Eventually the disease can lead to the eyelids turning inwards, blinding the patient. Infections are generally fought off fairly quickly, particularly in adults, but having been infected does not offer protection against future infections, and the damage caused by each infection is cumulative. Chlamydia trachomatis is vulnerable to the antibiotics azithromycin and tetracycline.

McCoy cell monolayer micrograph reveals a number of intracellular Chlamydia trachomatis inclusion bodies; Magnified 200 times. The intracellular inclusion body represents the replication phase of the Chlamydia spp. organisms, whereupon, the reorganised reticulate body multiplies through binary fission into 100-500 new reticulate bodies, which mature into elementary bodies. Eugene Arum/Norman Jacobs/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Wikimedia Commons.

All three countries have been waging public health campaigns against Trachoma for many decades, with recent successes in eliminating infections attributed to the adoption of the World Health Organization's 'SAFE' strategy on the disease. This relies on four pillars, Surgery, which is used to save patients sight before it is lost in advances cases, Antibiotics, which are administered en masse during outbreaks, Facial cleanliness, in which large scale public health campaigns promote personal hygeine as a way to stop the spread of the disease, and Environment, in which access to clean water and good sanitation is improved. 

Mural promoting facial cleanliness to eliminate Trachoma, at Warburton in Western Australia. Minum Barreng: Indigenous Eye Health Unit/University of Melbourne/World Health Organization.

Both Algeria and Tunisia have historically had particular problems with Trachoma in their more arid southern provinces, where access to clean water has been limited. It has been estimated that in the early and mid twentieth centuries, as much as half of the population of southern Tunisia may have been affected by the disease.

World Health Organization consultant, Mario Tarizzo, prepares to take an eye smear from a school child at Srendi on the Tunisian island of Djerba. The World Health Organization has supported long-standing efforts in Tunisia to eliminate Trachoma, a disease of the eye that can cause blindness if left untreated. Eric Schwab/World Health Organization.

In Australia Trachoma was eliminated in much of the country decades ago, but has persisted in many remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, where access to both clean water and healthcare facilities can be very limited, and not everyone speaks English as a first language. In recent years bringing healthcare to such communities has been driven by a network of Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, which are better able to understand the healthcare needs of indigenous Australians, and deliver solutions in a culturally appropriate way.

Trachoma is one of 21 Neglected Tropical Diseases associated with devastating health, social and economic consequences outlined in the Roadmap proposed by the World Health Organization's Executive Board at its 146th session in February 2020, and adopted by the Seventy-third World Health Assembly in November 2020. This Roadmap aims to control, eliminate, or eradicate all of these diseases by 2021, in line with the United Nation's third Sustainable Development Goal: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. The elimination of Trachoma in Algeria and Tunisia makes then the 62nd and 63rd countries to have eliminated at least one Neglected Tropical Disease since the adoption of the Roadmap.

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At least 111 dead as high winds and dust storms sweep across Uttar Pradesh.

At least 111 people have died and another 59 have been injured as high winds and dust storms swept across Uttar Pradesh State in northern India on Wednesday 13 May 2026. The storms also damaged at least 227 homes and killed at least 200 head of livestock. Most of the injuries and fatalities have been attributed to falling trees, and in some cases walls. One man working on installing a metal roof on a warehouse building was thrown 15 m into the air when the winds tore the roof away, but miraculously survived. 

Roofing contractor Nanhe Miyan was thrown more than 15 m into the air when a section of roof he was working on came away amid high winds in Uttar Pradesh on 13 May 2026, but escaped with minor injuries. Firstpost.

High winds and dust storms are common in Uttar Pradesh in the summer months of April, May and June, when high temperatures over the arid areas to the southwest, which include the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, the Cholistan Desert of the Punjab, and the Kharan Desert of Baluchistan, can reach 45-50°C, resulting in a hot dry wind known as the 'loo' which blows over the North Indian Plain. This combination of heat and dry winds has a desiccating effect, causing trees to lose their leaves and much of the vegetation of the area to dry out and die (before blooming again with the onset of the monsoon season). It can also be very harmful to Humans, with deaths from heatstroke most common at this time of year.

However, this week's storm was a more exceptional event, bringing with it winds of over 160 km per hour, as well as heavy rainfall, something not usually associated with the loo winds. This appears to have been brought about by the interplay between a the loo wind and two cool cyclonic systems, one of which was located over northern Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir, the other over Haryana and the northwestern part of Uttar Pradesh, according to the India Meteorological Department. The cyclonic systems had already been drawing in warm moist air from the Bay of Bengal, and when they encountered the loo winds, the moist air was forced upwards, rapidly forming cumulonimbus (thunderhead) clouds, while the dryer air wash pushed into a downdraught, leading to much higher wind speeds. 

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An embryonic Synapsid from the Early Triassic of South Africa.

 The persistence of egg-laying in modern Monotremes has led evolutionary biologists to conclude that this is likely to have been the ancestral state in the Synapsids, the group from which the Mammals arose. However, fossil evidence for this has been surprisingly absent. The earliest known potential fossil amniotic egg comes from the Permian of South America, and has been attributed to a Mesosaurid Sauropsid (a group not closely related to Synapsids of Mammals). This specimen preserves an immature skeleton curled in a position consistent with having been in an egg at the time of death, but no actual eggshell (not altogether surprising, as the earliest amniote eggs are not predicted to have been mineralised). The earliest amniotic egg fossils with both embryonic remains and eggshell come from Sauropodomorph dinosaurs from the Early Jurassic of Gondwana. Some potential eggs associated with Synapsid Pelycosaurs from the Early Permian of North America are not considered to be reliable, as neither embryos nor shell structures are preserved.

The Late Triassic-Early Jurassic Elliot Formation of South Africa's Karoo Basin has produced numerous Dinosaur egg fossils with embryos, as well as the skeletal remains of many non-Mammalian Cynodonts, something which has led to questions about whether Permo-Triassic Synapsids laid eggs at all. This is a serious consideration; Synapsids, particularly groups such as Lystrosaurus and Diictodon, are extremely common in the Permian and Triassic of the Karoo, with perinate specimens (specimens thought to have died around the time of birth or hatching) being found here and elsewhere, but no eggs are known. The preservation of Dinosaur eggs in the Karoo suggests there was no taphonomic process here producing a bias against the preservation of eggs, and palaeontologists have been active in the Karoo Basin for over 180 years, suggesting that if such eggs were present, there should have been a good chance of their being found. Egg-laying and bearing live young are found in closely related Snakes and Lizards, and it appears that this group has been able to switch back-and-forth between these conditions fairly easily. It is therefore conceivably possible that Synapsids developed the ability to bear live young very early in their history, and that Monotremes have secondarily switched back to egg-laying.

However, this has wider implications than Synapsid palaeontology. Current theories on the origin of lactation in Mammals have been built on the assumption that this preceeded the switch to live-birth (largely because Monotremes produce both eggs and milk). It is now generally accepted that the purpose of lactation was not originally to feed the young, but rather started as skin secretions used to either moisturise the eggs, provide nutrients, protect them against fungi and bacterial infections, or for hormonal signalling through the egg membrane. Should it be found that the Synapsids from which Mammals evolved bore live young, then these theories would have to be abandoned.

In a paper published in the journal PLoS One on 9 April 2026, Julien Benoit of the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, Vincent Fernandez of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, and Jennifer Botha of the Evolutionary Studies Institute and Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, describe three perinate specimens of the Dicynodont Synapsid Lystrosaurus from the Early Triassic of Xhariep Municipal District in Free State Province, South Africa, one of which appears to have been preserved within an egg.

The specimens examined are the three smallest specimens attributed to Lystrosaurus. They include BP/1/4011, an isolated skull measuring 43.0 mm, discovered by James Kitching in the upper Palingkloof Member of the Balfour Formation at Orangia on Tweefontein 508, BP/1/9332, an almost complete articulated skeleton with a skull length of 44.0 mm, discovered by Brandon Stuart in the upper Palingkloof Member of the Balfour Formation at Nooitgedacht 68 Farm near Spitskop, and NMQR 3636, a complete skeleton with a skull length of 34.5 mm, found by John Nyaphuli at Rheeboksfontein 5 Farm in 2008, probably from the upper Palingkloof Member of the Balfour Formation or the lower Katberg Formation.Each of these fossils was a scanned at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, with three dimensional models being reconstructed with the Avizo Software Package.

The isolated skull BP/1/4011 was described by Kitching as the smallest known skull attributed to Lystrosaurus in 1964, and attributed to either Lystrosaurus murrayi or Lystrosaurus curvatus by a study in 2006. Benoit et al. are more cautious, attributing it to Lystrosaurus sp. but suggesting it shows affinities to Lystrosaurus curvatus.

The first of the articulated skeletons, BP/1/9332, is considered to be an early juvenile of Lystrosaurus sp., with affinities to Lystrosaurus murrayi. It is preserved in a splayed out position, similar to that of most larger Lystrosaurus specimens from the Karoo Basin, with most bones perfectly articulated, and synchrotron images show that no loose elements are preserved in the surrounding matrix. It appears to be the most developmentally advanced of the three specimens, because its splenials are co-ossified at the mandibular symphysis, although its occipital and basicranial bones remain loose. From the splayed out position in which it was found, Benoit et al. determine that it had hatched before dying, probably moving some distance from its hatching site before death.

Photograph of BP/1/9332 in dorsal view. Benoit et al. (2026).

The final specimen, NMQR 3636, is also considered by Benoit et al. to be an early juvenile of Lystrosaurus sp., with affinities to Lystrosaurus murrayi. However, unlike BP/1/9332, this specimen is curled into a fetal position, consistent with having been within an egg at the time of death. It also appears to be the most developmentally immature of the specimens, lacking tusk buds in its maxillary alveolae, something present in both the other specimens, or a mesethmoid bone, the structure that supports the olfactory bulbs in life, which is again present in the other two specimens. 

Most notably, the lower jaw of NMQR 3636 has an incompletely co-ossified symphyseal suture between the two paired bones in the lower jaw. This is completely co-ossified in both the other specimens, as well as in modern beaked Amniotes such as Turtles and Birds at the time of hatching. Modern Monotremes do hatch with an unfinished intermandibular symphysis, but these feed on milk provided by their mothers for some time after hatching, something Lystrosaurus is not thought likely to have been able to produce. 

Based upon this, Benoit et al. conclude that the early developmental stage of the skeleton, combined with a posture which would be expected of a perinate prior to hatching and a jaw which had not developed to the stage where it could feed on the hard foodstuffs likely to have been consumed by juvenile Lystrosaurus. is indicative of an Animal which died within the egg and was subsequently preserved, albeit without preservation of the egg itself.

Specimen NMQR 3636 in left lateral view. (a) Photograph of the specimen; (b) 3D digital reconstruction of the segmented bones; (c) live reconstruction by artist Sophie Vrard. Colour code for (b): vertebral elements in shades of green, ribs in blue, forelimb elements in red, femur in yellow, pelvic girdle elements in grey, skull in light red, mandible in light orange. Benoit et al. (2026).

Based upon the position of the embryo, it is estimated that the original egg was 3.65 cm long and 2.75 cm in diameter, with an internal mass of 115 cm³ and a mass of 115 g. While size estimates for adult Lystrosaurus vary, this is clearly larger compared to the size of an adult than either living Monotremes or most non-Avian Reptiles, although comparatively smaller than the eggs of Birds. This is probably indicative of a large yolk, which can feed the embryonic Animal for longer, allowing it to develop further within the egg. 

Modern Monotremes produce small eggs compared to the size of an adult, which contain comparatively little yolk material. This is possible because the young hatch at an early developmental stage, and are then nourished with milk. Interestingly, the Jurassic Tritylodontid Cynodont Kayentatherium produced eggs which were even smaller compared to the size of an adult. While Kayentatherium has been reconstructed as being quite Reptile-like in physiology, the small egg size could be a sign that it was capable of a form of lactation. It has also been suggested that Kayentatherium probably had hair, something which is known to be linked genetically to the formation of mammary glands (which produce milk), and it has also been shown that there is a genetic link between the reduction in egg yolk production and the ability to produce milk. All of which suggests that Kayentatherium may have been more Mammal-like than previously reconstructed, and that the appearance of the ability to produce milk may have been closely linked to the emergence of the Mammaliamorpha.

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Three fatalities in Hantavirus outbreak on Dutch cruise ship.

Three people have died and a further five people have been infected in an outbreak of Hantavirus on the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius, according to a press release issued by the World Health Organization on 8 May 2026. The disease, which is caused by the Virus Orthohantavirus andesense, is a zoonotic disease (disease with a reserve in a wild Animal population which sometimes spreads to Humans) causing a hemorrhagic or pulmonary fever. It is not easily passed from Human-to-Human, but can do so when people are living together in close conditions in an environment such as a cruise ship.

The outbreak is thought to have begun with an 70-year-old male Dutch national who boarded the ship at Ushuaia, on the Argentinian part of Tierra del Fuego, on 1 April 2026, after spending three months touring Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. This patient developed symptoms at sea, and died on 11 April before the ship reached any port. He is considered a probable case, as no microbiological tests were carried out. 

The MV Hondius, a 106.7 m Polar Class 6 vessel, designed for luxury touring in polar regions with a minimal environmental impact, which was hit by Hantavirus outbreak in April and May 2026. Oceanwide Expeditions.

The second patient to develop the disease was the original patient's 69-year-old widow, who had been travelling with the first patient and joined the ship with him. She developed gastrointestinal symptoms at sea, and left the ship when it arrived at Saint Helena on 24 April, and flew to Johannesburg the following day, where she boarded a flight to Amsterdam, where her condition deteriorated rapidly, causing her to be removed from the plane and moved to a local hospital, where she died on 26 April. She was confirmed as being infected with Orthohantavirus andesense by polymerise chain reaction testing carried out by the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

The third patient, another adult male, started to show symptoms on 24 April, and was evacuated from the ship when it put into Ascension Island on 27 April. This patient was also airlifted to Johannesburg, where he is being treated in an intensive care unit. This patient was also confirmed as being infected with Orthohantavirus andesense by polymerise chain reaction testing.

A fourth patient, and adult female German national, developed a fever on 28 April, while the ship was sailing between Ascension Island and the Cape Verde islands, and died of pneumonia on 2 May, before the ship made it to port. This patient was later confirmed to have died of Hantavirus by post-mortem examination.

The fifth patient, the ship's doctor, began to develop symptoms on 30 April, and was confirmed as having Hantavirus by polymerise chain reaction testing when the ship reached Cape Verde on 6 May, and was airlifted to the Netherlands, where he is currently being treated in an isolation unit. 

The sixth patient, a guide employed on the ship, reported mild respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms on 27 April. He was also diagnosed with Hantavirus infection by polymerise chain reaction testing when the ship reached Cape Verde and airlifted to the Netherlands.

A seventh patient, who disembarked from the ship at St Helena on 22 April and flew home to Switzerland via South Africa and Qatar, began to show symptoms on 1 May. He immediately self-reported to medical authorities in Switzerland, and is now being treated in an isolation unit there.

An eighth patient, who disembarked from the ship at Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic on 14 April, began to show symptoms on 28 April. He is now being treated in isolation, although results of testing for the Virus have yet to be returned.

A ninth patient with Hantavirus-like symptoms was evacuated at Cape Verde and airlifted to Germany, but was later found not to be infected.  Efforts are still being made to trace 32 other patients who disembarked at Saint Helena and dispersed to a variety of countries before the nature of the outbreak was understood. After leaving Cape Verde the ship sailed to the Canary Islands, where it was met by medical personnel from the World Health Organization and a variety of countries, where both passengers and crew were screened for the Virus before being allowed to travel on to their home countries, where they will be required to undergo a period of isolation. A skeleton crew and medical personnel remained on the ship while it was sailed to the Netherlands to be thoroughly disinfected. 

Stops made by the MV Hondius during the outbreak. On 11 May, the ship was en route to Rotterdam. Wikipedia.

A flight attendant on the Johannesburg-Amsterdam flight from which the second patient was removed also later developed symptoms, and was admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam. Two Singaporean nationals who had been on the ship and subsequent flight from Saint Helena to Johannesburg were tested for the Virus after one developed Hantavirus-like symptoms, but neither was found to be infected. Attempts are still being made to trace passengers from both fights.

Hantavirus infections are caused by triple single-stranded negative-sense RNA Viruses of the genus Orthohantavirus. These Viruses are typically found in Rodents, with 28 species known, each of which infects a different species of Rodent. These Viruses occasionally jump species and infect Humans, where they break down into two groups, Old World Hantaviruses, which can cause a hemorrhagic fever accompanied by a severe kidney infection, and New World Hantaviruses, which cause a severe respiratory disease.

Structure of the Andes Hantavirus. Lexi Schoonover/Hope College/Wikimedia Commons.

The Andes Hantavirus, Orthohantavirus andesense, is found in Long-tailed Pygmy Rice Rats, Oligoryzomys longicaudatus, a wild Rodent found in the southern Andes of Chile and Argentina, where it does not appear to produce any symptoms. It can be transmitted to Humans through the inhalation of  aerosols that contain rodent saliva, urine, or feces, through the consumption of contaminated food, or by being bitten or scratched by a Rat.

A Long-tailed Pygmy Rice Rat, Oligoryzomys longicaudatus, the wild vector of the Andes Hantavirus. Yamil Hussain/Wikimedia Commons.

There is no effective treatment or vaccine for Hantavirus, and the disease is best prevented by using cleanliness and good hygiene to keep Rodents from entering Human dwellings or workplaces. If this fails a pest control consultant should be used to remove the Rodents. Placing infected patients in intensive care with fluids and, if necessary, artificial respiration, can help, but even with these precautions about 30% of patients typically die. Patients who have been infected with the disease and survive are generally immune to further infections with the same Virus.

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Three hikers killed by eruption on Mount Dukono

Three hikers were killed in an eruption on Mount Dukono, a 1273 m high volcano on the northern part of Halmahera Island, Indonesia, on Friday 8 May 2026. The three were part of a group of 20 Indonesian and Singaporean hikers which had trekked up the volcano under the leadership of Indonesian tour guide Reza Selang. The hike was undertaken despite a prohibition on climbing the volcano which had been in place since 17 April, due to a high level of volcanic activity. However, Selang claims he was unaware of this prohibition, and was not made aware of it by local villagers he employs as assistants. Local authorities, meanwhile, claim to have posted warnings on social media and place banners at the entrance to trails leading to the volcano.

An ash column over Mount Dukuno on 8 May 2026. Jhon Frengki Manipa/Reuters.

The group ascended the volcano early in the morning, with Selang sending a drone to the volcano's summit to check for volcanic activity, before sending up a group of fourteen hikers under the leadership of Singaporean tour organiser Timothy Heng, who had booked the trip through Selang last year, while Selang remained lower down with the remainder of the group. At about 7.40 Selang sent his drone up again to check on the group, when the volcano underwent two explosive eruptions in rapid succession, the first producing only smoke, but the second ejecting large volumes of ash, rock, and other debris. 

The group on the mountain scattered and ran downhill in response to this, though Selang reports seeing one man, Singaporean Shahin Muhrez bin Abdul Hamid lying on the ground near the crater. He states that he then ascended the summit along with Heng, who had escaped the initial blast, with the two of them attempting to rescue the injured man. During this attempt both Singaporeans were hit and killed by a large rock, with only Selang escaping.

Selang and the majority of the group made it back to the base of the mountain, where they discovered another person was missing, Indonesian Angel Krishela Pradita. They then notified the local authorities, who sent out a rescue team, who later recovered the bodies of all three missing hikers. The survivors were treated for injuries at a local hospital.

Rescue workers recovering the body of one of the hikers killed on Mount Dukono on 8 May 2026. Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana.

Dukono is one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes, having been erupting more-or-less continuously since 1933. Eruptions most frequently take the form of ash explosions and sulphur dioxide plumes, with lave flows also being reasonably common. The volcano also went a major eruptive phase in the mid sixteenth century, as well as shorter episodes in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.

The Halmahera Islands arc a volcanic arc; formed where one tectonic plate is being subducted beneath another, with the underlying plate being melted by the heat of the Earth's interior, and lighter minerals bubbling up through the overlying plate to form volcanoes. However the Halmahera Islands are unusual in that they lie on a double subduction zone. The underlying plate, a northeaster extension of the Molucca Plate, is being overridden form the Philippine Plate from the east and the Eurasian Plate from the west. The Halmahera volcanoes are located where the Philippine Plate is overriding the Molucca Plate; to the west the Sangihe Islands lie where the Molucca Plate is being overridden by the Eurasian Plate.

Diagrammatic representation of the subduction zones beneath Halmahera (middle), plus the Philippines (top) and Sulawesi (bottom), with the Eurasian Plate to the left, the Molucca Sea Plate in the middle, and the Philippine Plate to the right.  Hall & Wilson (2000).

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