How did covid-19 get to the Alajuela Hospital doctor, a 54-year-old man who became the superdisseminator? He is currently the source of infection for 16 of the 22 people who have been confirmed with covid-19.
The man is in a delicate condition at Hospital México.
There is no answer to the question of how that first contagion was, the same one that became the starting point for three-quarters of the patients with the disease in the country.
What is known about this man is that he traveled to Panama, to the Tocumen international airport (PTY) in Panama City, where he met his aunt and a niece of the woman (whose link to him is unknown) who came from Cuba.
He traveled to Costa Rica with the two women.
At the moment, the Health Surveillance authorities of the Ministry of Health have three scenarios: the first is that this man has been infected here in Costa Rica by someone who had not registered symptoms (less likely possibility).
The second is that he, at some point, was infected at the Tocumen airport, one of the largest and busiest in the region, by someone a person with the virus (either with or without symptoms).
The third possibility is that the virus came from Cuba and that, instead of he being the one who infected his aunt, it was the other way around.
On Wednesday Cuba reported 3 confirmed cases of the coronavirus covid-19. Before yesterday, Cuba had not reported any cases. Meanwhile Panama has now reported 8 confirmed cases and one death, of the two deaths reported in Latin America.
CCSS focused on recovery
Faced with inquiries about an eventual investigation into the actions of the medical professional, given the way in which the disease spread, the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) – also known as the Caja – executive president, Román Macaya, stated that for now they are concentrating on seeking his recovery.
Macaya reiterated that the contacts the doctor made, of which 16 were already positive, were made before the diagnosis of covid-19.
The CCSS president added that, as it was happens he is an employee of the Caja, but it could have well been a bus driver or any other peson who would have been exposed to a large number of people before showing symptoms and being diagnosed.
“This virus on average infects two to three people per case; here we have 16 directly or indirectly associated ”, Macaya said.
The Caja president added that “It is a very rare case in the epidemiology of this disease, given that it is normal for two or three to be infected for each person. This doctor already has 16 cases associated directly or indirectly to him.”
This phenomenon is known as superdissemination, and, although it is rare, it has been seen in the United Kingdom and South Korea. In the latter, a 41-year-old woman, spread the disease to 37 people.