San Jose – An outbreak of an unusual strain of malaria along Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast has spurred the health ministry here to issue an alert in the region, authorities said Tuesday.
Health Minister Maria Avila said at a press conference that the alert was declared because “they are high risk cases and we have to take appropriate, immediate, energetic and persistent measures to prevent them from spreading.”
Authorities fear that the disease could spread through the Caribbean coastal province of Limon and other parts of the country since malaria, which can be fatal, is transmitted by mosquitoes.
So far, there have been 13 confirmed cases of the disease, but another 29 people are suspected of being infected, most of them in the Limon town of Batan.
The “falciparum” strain of malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes that deposit within people they bite a parasite that attacks the blood, producing serious anemia that can cause death if not treated in time.
In the face of the threat, the health ministry will increase the number of medical personnel posted in Batan and improve preventive measures throughout the country, but particularly along the Caribbean coast.
Official data indicate that through September there had been 2,061 cases of regular malaria registered all across Costa Rica in 2006, 97 percent of them occurring in the Caribbean region. However, no deaths had resulted from the disease.
But the falciparum malaria variety is not common and an outbreak has not been detected for 10 years. EFE
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