QCOSTARICA – Despite, both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) including Costa Rica in the list of countries with indigenous cases of this disease, the Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Salud) says so far there is no evidence that the virus circulating in the country.
The latest case, that of a Nicaraguan man in Limon classified as “suspected of indigenous transmission”, because he had some symptoms, such as fever and body aches, and had not left the Caribbean province in the last month, has been ruled out by Health officials.
Fernando Llorca Castro, Minister of Health, confirmed that so far, most of the evidence analyzed by the Costa Rican Institute for Research and Education in Nutrition and Health (Inciensa), have tested positive, but for Dengue.
According to Llorca, this confirms that, for the moment, the virus still not actively circulating in the country.
He also announced that two more suspected cases were reported in Atenas, Alajuela, were dismissed as Zika. These patients had Dengue.
So far, only two cases of Zika have been confirmed by Health authorities, both imported: one from Colombia and one from Honduras.
National authorities are still “highly suspicious” in the case of the American tourist who allegedly contracted the virus in Costa Rica.
The Zika virus, like Dengue and Chikungunya, is transmitted by the female Aedes aegypti mosquito.
The three diseases share some common symptoms such as fever and body aches. However, in the case of Dengue, the patient may develop a shock due to loss of body fluids and die.
With Chikungunya, meanwhile, the patient suffers a similar picture of rheumatoid arthritis with severe inflammation of the joints that can be for life.
With Zika, the virus has recently been linked to cases of microcephaly (small head) and Guillain-Barre syndrome, autoimmune disease that paralyzes the muscles of the body.
The Ministry of Health and Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) is mobilizing throughout the country to eliminate mosquito breeding sites and detect, on time, possible cases of the new disease.
Source: La nacion
