Costa Rica's Social Security System (Caja) announced Tuesday that 9,737 suspected cases of dengue have been treated this year.
Fifty-eight percent of the cases have been diagnosed on the Caribbean coast. Other areas seeing a high number of infections in the past couple of weeks are Chorotega in the northwestern province of Guanacaste and the Central Pacific region. Most of those infected are between the ages of 19 and 39, according to a Caja statement. No deaths have been reported.
The outbreak on the Atlantic coast is the most severe in four years. Rodrigo Marín, national coordinator of vector control at the Health Ministry, told The Tico Times last week that the epidemic has been more difficult to control this year due to an “atypical” factor. Three of the four serotypes of dengue are circulating in the Limón province. Fighting off three different variants of the same disease can be a challenge, Marín said.
The best way to stop the spread of dengue is to eliminate receptacles for standing water, where dengue-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes breed. For a list of tips, click here.
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