Published1 day agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesBy Laura GozziBBC NewsSouthern Europe will continue to swelter next week as an intense heatwave shows no sign of abating.Italy, Spain and Greece have been experiencing high temperatures for several days already. The Italian health ministry issued a red alert for 16 cities including Rome, Bologna and Florence for the weekend.The heatwave is expected to continue well into next week, with 48C (118.4F) possible in Sardinia, according to Italian media.Such a temperature would, however, fall short of the European record high of 48.8C (119.8F) – which was recorded in Sicily in August 2021.The Italian weather service said Sardinia would be at the “epicentre” of next week’s heatwave – which weather forecasters have dubbed Charon, after the ferryman who delivered souls into the underworld in Greek mythology.”Temperatures will reach a peak between 19 and 23 July – not only in Italy but also in Greece, Turkey and the Balkans. Several local heat records within these areas may well be broken during those days,” Italian meteorologist and climate expert Giulio Betti told the BBC. Italy’s government has advised anyone in the areas covered by Saturday’s red alerts to avoid direct sunlight between 11:00 and 18:00, and to take particular care of the elderly or vulnerable.In Rome, tour guide Felicity Hinton, 59, told the BBC the soaring temperatures combined with overcrowding has made it “nightmarish” to navigate the city.”It’s always hot in Rome but this has just been consistently hot for a lot longer than normal,” she said.”My tour guide friends and I are extremely stressed out. People have been fainting on tours and there are ambulances outside everywhere.”Rome resident Elena, 62 told the BBC that she has noticed a “marked change” in summer temperatures since around 2003, and that they have been growing exponentially since. Meanwhile, Greece has hit temperatures of 40C (104F) or more in recent days. The Acropolis in Athens – the country’s most popular tourist attraction – was closed during the hottest hours of Friday and Saturday to protect visitors. In Spain’s Canary Islands, a forest fire that broke out on La Palma on Saturday morning forced the evacuation of at least 4,000 people and has so far destroyed 4,500 hectares (11,000 acres) of land. Fernando Clavijo, president of the Canary Islands regional government, said at least 12 houses had been destroyed and attributed the quick spread of the fire to “the wind, the climate conditions as well as the heatwave that we are living through”.’Dangerous’ US heatwave threatens new records What effects do heatwaves have on the body?Periods of intense heat occur within natural weather patterns, but globally they are becoming more frequent, more intense and are lasting longer due to global warming.”Heatwaves increase every year in number and intensity… and they are among the most tangible, evident, documented and clearly observable signs of climate change,” Mr Betti said.”European summers have gotten much, much hotter in recent years… What should worry us is that summers without intense and prolonged heatwaves simply don’t exist anymore. ‘Normal’ summers have become a rarity.”Last month was the hottest June on record, according to the EU’s climate monitoring service Copernicus.This video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.More on this storyWhat effect do heatwaves have on the body?Published5 days agoA really simple guide to climate changePublished29 June

Published18 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, ABRAHAM PINEDABy Laura GozziBBC NewsUS and Mexican authorities are urging the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a public health emergency over a fungal outbreak linked to cosmetic operations in Mexico.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said two people who got surgeries involving epidural anaesthesia have died of meningitis.Almost 400 people in the US and Mexico are being monitored. Two cosmetic clinics in the Mexican city of Matamoros have been shut.Authorities in both the US and Mexico have urged people who had surgeries involving epidural anaesthesia at either the River Side Surgical Center or Clinica K-3 since January to get evaluated, even if they are currently asymptomatic. The CDC said it had already identified 25 people in the US with “suspected” or “probable” cases of fungal meningitis. Many US citizens travel to Mexico for cosmetic procedures such as liposuction, breast augmentation and Brazilian butt lifts, which all require the injection of an anaesthetic into the area around the spinal column. The CDC’s Dallas Smith said that medications used during anaesthesia in the current outbreak may have been contaminated either in the epidural itself or in other medications that are added in conjunction during the surgeries like morphine. “There’s a shortage currently in Mexico, and there could be potential for a black market that could have contaminated medicine,” said Mr Smith.Last October, a batch of a local anaesthetic commonly used for operations such as Caesarean births was found to have been infected by the same fungus, leading to the death of 39 people in the Mexican state of Durango.The most common early symptom of fungal meningitis is headaches, followed by symptoms like fever, vomiting, neck pain, and blurred vision. Fungal meningitis is not contagious and can be treated with antifungal medicines – but it can can quickly become life-threatening once symptoms begin. Americans often travel to Mexico for low-cost medical services.The WHO declares a public health emergency when a disease spreads between countries and may a co-ordinated international response may be required to bring it under control.More on this storyKidnapped Americans were in Mexico for tummy tuckPublished7 March