Here’s a look at health and environmental news from around South Carolina.

Tips To Fight Off Ticks

Columbia, SC (WLTX) – Since the start of summer means the beginning of summer, News 19 has some tips for you to fight off ticks.

These crawling creatures are making their presence known outdoors. Since 2004, the number of illnesses caused by tick, mosquito, and flea bites have increased more than three times.

General Interest
Get ready for an above-average hurricane season in 2018

(CNN)The 2018 hurricane season is shaping up to be “near- or above-normal” — though not to the degree seen last year, when 17 named storms formed and three major hurricanes struck US soil — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, said Thursday.

Ten to 16 named storms — including five to nine hurricanes, and one to four major hurricanes with Category 3 strength or higher — are predicted this Atlantic hurricane season, which begins June 1, the federal agency predicted.

World faces ‘staggering’ obesity challenge: study

In 27 years from now, almost a quarter of the global population will be obese, researchers said Wednesday, warning of the mounting medical bill.

If current trends continue, 22 percent of people in the world will be obese by 2045, up from 14 percent last year, according to research presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Vienna.