Chile officially recognised as the first country in the Americas to have eliminated Leprosy.

Chile has become the first country in the Americas to be recognised to have officially eliminated Leprosy, according to a press release issued by the World Health Organization on 4 March 2024. Chile is only the second country globally to reach this goal, following Jordan in September 2024. The conformation also makes Chile the sixth country in the Americas to have eliminated at least one Neglected Tropical Disease, joining Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Mexico.

Chilean flags. Mark Scott Johnson/Wikimedia Commons.

Leprosy was first recorded in Chile on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the late nineteenth century, with some subsequent cases reported on the mainland. The last reported case of a person becoming infected with the disease on Chilean territory occurred on Rapa Nui in 1993. However, the country has continued widespread monitoring for Leprosy, with 47 cases reported between 2012 and 2023, all of which were acquired outside of the country, and all of which were successfully treated.

Leprosy is caused by the Bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. It is essentially a skin disease, with the Bacteria infecting patches of skin, which can become dry and itchy, lose their pigmentation, suffer skin thickening, nerve damage, and local immune system failure, which can cause the patches vulnerable to secondary infections by other Bacteria, Fungi, and Viruses. It is these secondary infections which cause the ulceration and tissue loss associated with the disease, which can lead to shortening or loss of fingers and toes, or even facial features. The nerve damage associated with the disease can cause patients to fail to notice wounds, making them more vulnerable to infection.

Mycobacterium leprae heavy load (6+) in Ziehl-Neelsen stained slit skin smear microscopy at a magnification of 2000X. Ajay Kumar Chaurasiya/Wikimedia Commons.

Leprosy is thought to be spread by mucus droplets exposed by through the mouth or nose (which can enable it to spread among children rapidly) but not through most other forms of contact; it is not sexually transmitted, and patients with HIV do not appear to be any more vulnerable, although malnutrition may be a factor. Much of the Human population appear to be naturally immune to Leprosy, with vulnerability to the disease being genetic, and tending to run in families, which can be problematic, particularly in poorer communities where people are living in cramped conditions and have trouble accessing medicine. 

Leprosy is a zoonotic disease, with wild reserves of the Bacteria found in a number of Animal species, including Primates such as the Chimpanzee, the Sooty Mangabey, and the Cynomolgus Macaque. In Europe is thought to have been spread by Red Squirrels, which are known to be vulnerable to the disease, and which were extensively hunted for their fur in the Middle Ages. The disease is thought to have been introduced to the Americas by European settlers, but has become established in there in Armadillos, which can act as a wild vector, spreading Leprosy back to Humans.

The first effective treatment for Leprosy was developed by Alice Augusta Ball, a young researcher at the College of Hawai'i (now the University of Hawai'i), in 1915 (Ball is also noted to have been the first African American woman to achieve a masters degree in chemistry, the first African American woman hired as a chemistry instructor at the College of Hawai'i, and possibly the first African American woman to publish an article in a major scientific journal). Today it is typically treated with a combination of antibiotics such as rifampicin, dapsone, and clofazimine, with other antibiotics available if resistance to these is encountered. Such treatments can typically eliminate the disease completely, although the courses of treatment are long (6-12 months) and involves taking multiple pills each day, which can be problematic, particularly in younger children.

Alice Augusta Ball in 1915. University of Hawai'i/Wikimedia Commons.

Leprosy is still considered to be endemic to 132 countries, with around 200 000 new cases reported each year. The worst affected countries are Brazil, India, and Indonesia, each of which typically reports more than 10 000 new cases each year. Twelve other countries, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Tanzania, typically report between 1000  and 10 000 new cases per year, while another 117 countries typically report between 1 and 1000 cases per year. The World Health Organization is currently working towards the global elimination of Leprosy in partnership with the Swiss drug company Novartis, which provides multi-drug therapy for the disease to patients anywhere in the world at no cost, under the Partnership to Eliminate Leprosy scheme.

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South African diamond mining company files for bankruptcy after five miners killed in flood.

South African mining company Ekapa Minerals has filed for liquidation following the death of five miners at its Ekapa Joint Shaft Mine at Kimberly in Northern Cape Province, South Africa, on 17 February 2026. The miners have been missing presumed dead since a slurry of water and mud rapidly filled the section of the mine where they were working. The area where the incident occurred was located 890 m below ground, and had only recently been opened up, and life support systems had been installed, but the sudden nature of the flood has led the mine operators to conclude that the incident was not survivable, and, following several days of attempts to reach and clear the site, that there is little hope of recovering the bodies of the lost miners.

A mine rescue team entering the Ekapa Joint Shaft Mine site this week. SABC News.

Floods and inrushes typically occur when miners accidentally break through into pockets of water and gas trapped within rocks. Since such buried waters are often under high pressure due to the weight of rocks above them, they tend to escape into the mine rapidly, and on occasion explosively, leading to a highly dangerous situation in which miners are often rapidly overwhelmed. Such inrushes can also occur when miners encounter flooded disused mineworkings, a danger in areas where mining has occurred for a long time but good records have not been kept. The Ekapa mine had a history of flood inrush events, and the company had been warned by a parliamentary committee in 2025 that steps needed to be taken to avoid future events of this kind.

The Ekapa Joint Shaft Mine site. SABC News.

The closure of the mine is predicted to result in the loss of about 1200 jobs, a crisis for the city of Kimberly, which has a population of just under 97 000 people, and is already suffering from high unemployment rates due to the decline of the diamond industry. Furthermore, workers from the site report that they have not received their salaries for the month of February 2026, placing many of the in a very difficult situation financially. 

Ekapa Minerals purchased the Joint Shaft Mine from mining giant De Beers in 2016, and at the time of closure it was the last surviving diamond mine in Kimberly. In theory, the site could be sold on to another mining company following the liquidation process, but it is unclear if a buyer will be found given the mine's problems and a fluctuating diamond market.

The location of Kimberley in Northern Cape Province, South Africa. Google Maps.

Kimberly was founded in the 1870s following the discovery of diamonds in the area, and rapidly became a centre of wealth in the Cape Colony, opening South Africa's first stock exchange in 1881, and becoming the second city in the world to install electric street lighting the following year. However, in recent years the city's mines have closed one-by-one as the industry has become less viable. The long history of mining in the area means that there are no diamonds left close to the surface, and while they can still be found at greater depths, these are generally fairly small, making it hard for these mines to compete with either shallow, open pit mines elsewhere, or artificial lab-grown diamonds.

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Denmark officially recognised as having ended mother-to-child transmission of HIV and Syphilis.

Denmark has been officially recognised as having eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and Syphilis according to a press release issued by the World Health Organization on 27 February 2026. In doing so it becomes the first member of the European Union and the third European country to achieve this status (behind Moldova and Belarus, both of which were confirmed as having ended mother-to-child transmission of both diseases in 2016). 

Flag of Denmark. Tomasz Sienicki/Wikimedia Commons.

The World Health Organization is aiming for all countries to achieve the triple elimination of mother-to-child transmission of three critical diseases, HIV, Syphilis, and Hepatitis B, although to date only a single country has passed this milestone, the Maldives in October 2025. Denmark's progress makes it one of 23 countries to have ended mother-to-child transmission of at least one of these diseases, alongside Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Belarus, Belize, Bermuda, Brazil, Botswana, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Jamaica, Malaysia, Maldives, Montserrat, Namibia, Oman, Republic of Moldova, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sri Lanka, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Thailand.

The confirmation of Denmark's status comes following assessments by the World Health Organization's Regional Validation Committee for Europe, and Global Validation Advisory Committee in 2025. In order to be confirmed, it was necessary to demonstrate that 95% of all pregnant women in Denmark were tested for the diseases, and that new infant infections were below 50 in 100 0000 births. Denmark currently has 5950 people living with HIV, with less than 0.1% of pregnant women affected. It is possible to completely suppress the disease with antiretroviral treatments, preventing development of symptoms and all forms of transmission, including mother-to-child. In 2024, Denmark reported 626 cases of Syphilis, 524 in men and 102 in women; infections with this disease can be eliminated with antibiotics. Denmark is still working towards ending mother-to-child transmission of Hepatitis B.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, is a form of Lentivirus which causes infections in Humans, spread through sexual intercourse or exchange of blood. Notably, the Virus infects the cells of the Human immune system, where it is hard for that immune system to attack, and eventually leads to a breakdown of the immune system known as AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), during which the body becomes vulnerable to a wide range of infections, including many by micro-organisms which are not usually pathogenic. 

Untreated, HIV invariably leads to AIDS, and AIDS is invariably fatal, but, as with Syphilis, HIV infections can go through long phases of dormancy, leaving infected people unaware that they have the disease. Neither an effective vaccine nor a cure for HIV has yet been developed, however, it is possible to suppress the infection with a combination of anti-viral drugs, allowing patients to lead relatively normal lives, as long as their supply of antivirals is not interrupted. Children born to mothers with HIV are not automatically infected, as the Virus is usually unable to cross the placenta, but there is a high chance of infection during birth if the mother is not receiving treatment.

Scanning electron microscope image of an HIV virion. Hockley et al. (1988). 

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the Spirochaete Bacterium Treponema pallidum. The symptoms of Syphilis can be variable, and it can go through long periods of dormancy, making the disease difficult to diagnose without modern testing methods. Syphilis infection in pregnant women leads to a raised risk of miscarriage, and infants born with the disease are prone to physical deformities, damage to the liver and spleen, and neurological problems. Syphilis can be treated with a range of antibiotics, including penicillin, although the development of a vaccine has proved difficult.

Scanning electron microscope image of Treponema pallidum, the causative agent of Syphilis. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Wikimedia Commons.

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Mud volcano reported to have killed several Cattle near the town of San Juan de Urabá in Colombia.

A number of Cattle are reported to have died following a mud volcano eruption near the town of San Juan de Urabá in Antioquia Department on the Caribbean coast of Colombia on 25 February 2026. The volcano erupted at about 6.20 pm local time, producing a large column of fire as ejected gas ignited, setting fire to vegetation and damaging the road between San Juan de Urabá and San Juancito, which drivers are advised to avoid until repairs are carried out and an assessment of potential future hazards is carried out.

A gas explosion caused by a mud volcano near the town of San Juan de Urabá in Colombia on 25 May 2026. Unidad Nacional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastrest.

Unlike regular volcanoes, mud volcanoes are not caused by magma erupting from within the Earth's interior, but rather gasses escaping from buried sediments closer to the surface. Typically this is methane generated by the decomposition of buried vegetation in areas where sediments are accumulating rapidly, leading to the decaying material becoming pressurised. Under these circumstances, the compressed gas will force its way through any cracks into softer layers above (the mud), then erupt rapidly, often bringing lighter oil fractions, also produced by the decomposition of plant material, with it. This creates an explosive mixture, which often ignites in the way seen in Colombia this week, although on other occasions more liquid mud than flammable gas is ejected, creating a messier, but less dramatic eruption.

The site of the mud volcano eruption the following day. The road between San Juan de Urabá and San Juancito can be seen to the left. Gobernación de Antioquia.

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Total Lunar Eclipse to be visible from East Asia, East Australia, Oceania, the Pacific Ocean, and western North America.

A total Lunar Eclipse will occur on Wednesday 3 March 2026, starting at 8.45 am GMT. It will be visible across the eastern parts of Asia, Australia, and Indonesia, as well as the rest of Oceania and the Pacific Ocean, the western part of North America, and parts of Antarctica. In Southeast, South, and Central Asia, western Australia and Indonesia, and much of North, Central, and South America, Greenland, and the Caribbean, part of the eclipse will be visible, although in these areas the Moon will either rise part way through the eclipse, or set before it is complete in these areas.

Areas from which the 3 March 2026 Lunar Eclipse will be visible. Dominic Ford/In the Sky.

The Moon produces no light of its own, but 'shines' with reflected light from the Sun. Thus at Full Moon the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth to the Sun, and its illuminated side is turned towards us, but at New Moon the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun, so that its illuminated side is turned away from us.

How the phases of the Moon are caused by the relative positions of the Earth, Sun and Moon. Karl Tate/Space.com.

Lunar eclipses occur when the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow. This can only happen at Full Moon (unlike Solar Eclipses, which happen only when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sum, and therefore only occur at New Moon), but does not happen every Lunar Month as the Sun, Moon and Earth are not in a perfect, unwavering line, but rather both the Earth and the Moon wobble slightly as they orbit their parent bodies, rising above and sinking bellow the plane of the ecliptic (the plane upon which they would all be in line every month). 

The phases of the 3 March 2026 Lunar Eclipse. Leah Tiscione/Sky & Telescope.

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