No menu items!

COSTA RICA'S LEADING ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER

HomeHealth mattersCosta Rica's Health Ministry confirms three imported cases of the measles

Costa Rica’s Health Ministry confirms three imported cases of the measles

Costa Rica’s Health Ministry confirmed Thursday afternoon three imported cases of the measles, the country’s first since 2014.

The affected are a 5-year-old French boy, his mother and father, according to the Health Ministry. The family has been placed in quarantine at Hospital Monseñor Sanabria in Puntarenas.

The mother and child do not have the measles vaccine, according to the Health Ministry, while the father has not completed the entire vaccination series. They had arrived in Costa Rica on Feb. 18.

The Health Ministry says it will investigate what contact the contagious family may have had with susceptible people.

Measles is a highly contagious virus that lives in mucus and can spread through coughing and sneezing. The virus can also survive for two hours in an airspace where the infected person has coughed or sneezed, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

The CDC estimates measles killed 500 people annually in the United States before a vaccine was developed in 1963.

Costa Rica requires proof of yellow fever vaccination for tourists visiting from at-risk countries, according to the CDC. However, the Health Ministry says Costa Rica cannot require travelers to have had the complete measles vaccine due to standards set by the World Health Organization.

The CDC recommends “all children get two doses of MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine, starting with the first dose at 12 through 15 months of age, and the second dose at 4 through 6 years of age.”

Anyone traveling internationally should be protected against measles, the CDC says.

Inform the Health Ministry if you or someone you know has a fever, nasal congestion, cough, inflamed eyes (conjunctivitis), or a splotchy, red rash that begins in the face — especially if the person with these symptoms has recently been in an area with reported measles cases.


​​
​​This story was made possible thanks to The Tico Times 5 % Club. If only 5 percent our readers donated at least $2 a month, we’d have our operating costs covered and could focus on bringing you more original reporting from around Costa Rica. We work hard to keep our reporting independent and groundbreaking, but we can only do it with your help. Join The Tico Times 5% Club and help make stories like this one possible.
​​
​​

Support the Tico Times

Trending Now

An Expat’s Take: 5 Burning Questions About Life in Costa Rica Right Now

Have you been keeping up with the various events taking place in Costa Rica? There is always something interesting going down, and here are...

Costa Rica’s Eyelash Viper Snake Is One of the Most Beautiful

There are at least 141 different species of snakes in Costa Rica. With that large number of species packed into such a tiny nation,...

Costa Rica’s Piangua Mollusk Threatened by Pineapple Farm Runoff

Costa Rica’s Térraba-Sierpe National Wetland, a 33,000-hectare haven of mangroves and rivers, is under siege from an unlikely source: pineapple farms. A study by...

Costa Rica Moves Forward with Crypto Regulation to Combat Financial Crime

Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly has advanced a landmark bill targeting the regulation of virtual asset service providers (VASPs), aiming to bolster the nation’s defenses...

Costa Rica Pushes USA to the Brink but Falls in Penalty Heartbreak

If you just caught the end of the USA vs. Costa Rica Gold Cup quarterfinal, you probably feel like you need another cup of...

Hondurans March to Mark 2009 Coup as Election Battle Heats Up

Thousands of government supporters marched Saturday in the capital of Honduras to commemorate the anniversary of the 2009 coup that ousted then-leftist President Manuel...
spot_img
Costa Rica Tours
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Travel Insurance
Costa Rica Rocking Chait
Costa Rica Travel

Latest News from Costa Rica