For months now Costa Rican health authorities have been insisting on the vaccination of children against measles due to outbreaks of this virus in different parts of the continent; yesterday, the Ministry of Health confirmed that this virus is back in the country, an imported case from France.
A family of French tourist, the parents 30 and 35 years of age and their 5-year-old child, have been placed in isolation at the Puntarenas Hospital. The child and mother do not have the corresponding vaccinations; they consulted a private doctor in the country regarding their child’s “rash”, they also confirmed that other children at the school their son attends in France have had measles.
Doctors confirmed the results of the blood analysis, positive for measles. This led Costa Rican health authorities to activate their protocol and contact everyone that could have been in contact with the family, including those who were on the same Air France flight into the country on February 18 and the hotel they stayed at in San José for one day and where they stayed in Santa Teresa, Puntarenas.
Costa Rica has not presented native cases of measles since 2006 and the last time an imported case was reported was in 2014.
Over 7,000 cases of measles were reported in the American continent last year, the number of patients in the United States and Latin America has increased considerably in the past year.
Measles is a highly contagious infection that is caused by a virus and that consists in a rash that generally starts on the face and quickly spreads to the rest of the body, other symptoms include high fever, runny nose, cough, body ache and swollen eyes; complications can cause pneumonia, diarrhea, blindness and encephalitis.
A person with measles can spread the virus to others for about eight days, starting four days before the rash appears and ending when the rash has been present for four days.
A family of French tourist, the parents 30 and 35 years of age and their 5-year-old child, have been placed in isolation at the Puntarenas Hospital. The child and mother do not have the corresponding vaccinations; they consulted a private doctor in the country regarding their child’s “rash”, they also confirmed that other children at the school their son attends in France have had measles.
Doctors confirmed the results of the blood analysis, positive for measles. This led Costa Rican health authorities to activate their protocol and contact everyone that could have been in contact with the family, including those who were on the same Air France flight into the country on February 18 and the hotel they stayed at in San José for one day and where they stayed in Santa Teresa, Puntarenas.
Costa Rica has not presented native cases of measles since 2006 and the last time an imported case was reported was in 2014.
Over 7,000 cases of measles were reported in the American continent last year, the number of patients in the United States and Latin America has increased considerably in the past year.
Measles is a highly contagious infection that is caused by a virus and that consists in a rash that generally starts on the face and quickly spreads to the rest of the body, other symptoms include high fever, runny nose, cough, body ache and swollen eyes; complications can cause pneumonia, diarrhea, blindness and encephalitis.
A person with measles can spread the virus to others for about eight days, starting four days before the rash appears and ending when the rash has been present for four days.
