Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.

The multinational outbreak of Andes hantavirus (ANDV) linked to cruise ship travel should prompt the World Health Organization (WHO) to change its default response to the risk of airborne transmission of the virus. Hantavirus is a pathogen with documented person-to-person transmission and high case fatality. Therefore, the starting point should not be to downplay the risk of airborne transmission until it is definitively proven. The starting point should be the immediate adoption of precautionary measures to reduce airborne transmission, such as respirator use by healthcare workers, cases, and close contacts; ventilation optimisation; avoidance of unfiltered air recirculation; and portable HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filtration in all enclosed quarantine and transport settings. On 8 May 2026, WHO issued several documents that point in different directions. A Disease Outbreak News report acknowledged possible person-to-person transmission, but largely framed precautions around droplet and contact transmission outside aerosol generating procedures.1 By contrast, WHO’s guidance for managing contacts of Andes virus cases and disembarkation from the cruise ship adopted much more precautionary measures, including quarantine, universal respirator use during disembarkation, respirators for healthcare workers …

Learn, Study and Research in UCC, Ireland's first 5 star university. Our tradition of independent thinking will prepare you for the world and the workplace in a vibrant, modern, green campus.

Clare County Council have teamed up with researchers from University of Galway and University College Cork in a new research project to investigate air quality in Ennis. The TownAir project, funded by...

Officials say a large explosion at an oil refinery near the Texas coast has shot plumes of smoke into the air and forced nearby residents to shelter in place.

The European Union body that monitors atmospheric conditions has warned that air quality across several European countries, including Ireland, will deteriorate over the next few days.

Masks are back: at the Olympics, at Nasa and with A-listers.

Masks are back: at the Olympics, at Nasa and with A-listers.

As most people spend 90% of their time indoors, we must consider and include our indoor environments as part of our environment when developing a National Clean Air Strategy.

Here are some tips for avoiding it.

Unpredictable conditions are limiting where it’s physically and financially possible to host the Winter Olympics.

BBC health correspondent James Gallagher gets his blood analysed to understand how air pollution is killing us.

Air pollution has today (4th February) been formally recognised as a cancer risk in Europe for the first time, after being added to the European Code Against Cancer. The update appears in the fifth ed...

Council inspectors target wholesale fuel suppliers as councillors warn illegal smoky coal is still harming vulnerable communities

Learn, Study and Research in UCC, Ireland's first 5 star university. Our tradition of independent thinking will prepare you for the world and the workplace in a vibrant, modern, green campus.

The relative importance of close-proximity interactions, shared space and air quality to the transmission of respiratory viruses is not well understood. Here, the authors investigate this question by ...

The aim of the Marine Spatial Planning Photo Competition is to find out how you would like to see our ocean and marine environments being used in the future.

A network of air quality monitors have been installed around Enniscorthy town as part of a UCC and University of Galway research project on emissions called TownAir.

Use of wood-burning stoves and fires in homes is mostly unnecessary and their toxic pollution costs the NHS millions

Figures show a 25% reduction in the number of injuries on Wales' roads in the past 18 months.

Two years ago, I reported on a study finding that the corona­virus contributed to the 2022 surge of paediatric RSV cases “through the large build-up of Covid-19-infected children and the potential lon...