For the second year in a row, the annual October carnival in Limón on the Caribbean coast has been canceled due to fears of dengue fever, according to the Public Health Ministry.
Health Minister María Luisa Avila told the Costa Rican daily La Nación that the city’s growing trash problem poses too great a risk of an outbreak.
The city’s trash must be hauled to a dumping ground 100 km away, and the result is a backup of rubbish in the streets.
The trash, which would multiply with the influx of people to the carnival, attracts mosquitoes.
Last year, Avila cancelled the carnival after more than 2,000 cases of dengue plagued the Limón province in under a year (TT, July 27, 2007).
