The central providence of Los Santos has declared an epidemic alert and cancelled local carnival celebrations due to the country's first hantaviruse outbreak. Authorities confirm nine people have been infected and believe the infection was been spread by rats or field mice. The virus does not usually spread from human to human. Early symptoms of hantavirus include fever and muscle aches, possibly chills, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain and cough.
Symptoms develop within six weeks after exposure.
For more information. Thirty-six years after student demonstrations and rioting in Panama caused a break in diplomatic relations between the two countries, and more than 22 years after the US vowed to return the Canal to Panama, it was handed over to Panama in a sunny ceremony and celebration on 1 January. In the days and weeks following the handover, ships passed through the canal without a glitch, no foreign nation made an attempt to capture it, and the Panamanians celebrated. As outlined in the 1977 treaty signed by Presidents Jimmy Carter and Omar Torrijos, the United States has yielded control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanean authorities. In 1903 after the forced secession of Panama, a former Colombian province, the US obtained the right from the young republic to construct and control the canal.