March 01, 2007

A HEALTH Emergency: Public Health Minister María Luisa Avila and Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias yesterday announced a campaign to vaccinate adults and children against whooping cough, which recently killed four babies in Costa Rica.

FIRED Up about Ferries: Approximately 50 protestors from the Nicoya Peninsula town of Paquera, home of a community association that runs ferries to the Pacific port of Puntarenas, made their voices heard outside Casa Presidencial in San José yesterday. According to Paquera Integral Development Association (ADIP) manager Eddie Novo, the Public Works and Transport Ministry (MOPT) has granted the concession for the ferries to Naviera Tambor, part of multinational company Grupo Barceló, starting today; previously, Tambor and ADIP shared the concession, each running separate ferries across the gulf. Novo told The Tico Times that ADIP lost the concession because it didn't comply with requirements such as regulations regarding exits from the ferry, but he claims Naviera Tambor has made mistakes as well and the community association deserves another shot. ADIP is the small community's primary source of employment, he said.

Health Minister Declares Whooping-Cough Emergency

The government yesterday declared a state of “sanitary emergency” following the death of four babies from pertussis, also known as whooping cough, a respiratory disease particularly serious in young infants, during the past month. According to Public Health Minister Maria Luisa Avila, the country needs to begin vaccinating parents, who are the primary culprits in inadvertently passing pertussis bacteria to their children.

Body of Canadian Man Found Floating at Sea

A body found floating in the Pacific Gulf of Nicoya was identified yesterday as a Canadian man named Wolfgang Brown, 51, according to a statement from the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ). A fisherman found the body Tuesday near Playa Blanca.

Consumer Confidence Index Increases 13.5% in Six Months

Costa Rica's consumer confidence index (CCI) went up 13.5 points during the past six months, thanks to favorable economic indicators, according to the results of a study released yesterday.

Gas Prices on the Up and Up

Health Minister Declares
Whooping-Cough Emergency

By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff | kstanley@ticotimes.net

The government yesterday declared a state of “sanitary emergency” following the death of four babies from pertussis, also known as whooping cough, a respiratory disease particularly serious in young infants, during the past month. According to Public Health Minister Maria Luisa Avila, the country needs to begin vaccinating parents, who are the primary culprits in inadvertently passing pertussis bacteria to their children.

Avila said the Health Ministry is planning a 42,000-dose, $320,000 vaccination campaign in the near future, focusing on mothers and their partners. Of the reported cases of whooping cough at the National Children's Hospital in San José, 66% of the children got the disease from their mothers, 20% from their fathers and the rest from other family members, she said.

Any adult or adolescent with a cough that lasts more than a week and is not accompanied by a fever may have whooping cough and should seek medical evaluation for any children in their homes, Avila added. Whooping cough is treated using antibiotics.

Over the course of the coming year, the government plans to expand the campaign by purchasing 140,000 doses of the vaccine from the World Health Organization (WHO) to immunize this year's newborns, increasing the investment to $1.2 million.

She added that the four children who died recently were less than two months old and lived in shantytowns, and that the provinces of Cartago, east of San José, and Heredia, north of San José, have been the hardest hit by the disease.

Since November 2005, 11 children have died here from whooping cough, according to the wire service ACAN-EFE. In its advanced stages, the disease produces a cough with a sound like a “whoop,” giving the illness its name.

Body of Canadian Man Found Floating at Sea

By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff | aroberson@ticotimes.net

A body found floating in the Pacific Gulf of Nicoya was identified yesterday as a Canadian man named Wolfgang Brown, 51, according to a statement from the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ). A fisherman found the body Tuesday near Playa Blanca.

Preliminary reports from the OIJ morgue show that the body had a rope tied around its chest connected to a sack with a rock inside it. The daily La Nación reported that an English-language Bible was also inside the sack.

Brown had lived in the Pacific city of Paquera for several years and had Costa Rican residency, the statement said.

The OIJ morgue is studying his body to determine his cause of death, a difficult task since it had been floating at sea for approximately 72 hours when it was discovered, said OIJ spokeswoman Mariela Cervantes.

Consumer Confidence Index
Increases 13.5% in Six Months

Costa Rica's consumer confidence index (CCI) went up 13.5 points during the past six months, thanks to favorable economic indicators, according to the results of a study released yesterday.

The 13 th consumer confidence survey, a report prepared every three months by the University of Costa Rica (UCR) indicated that in February, the CCI registered 54 points on a scale of 1 to 100, a jump from the 40.5 points registered in August.

“The survey is telling us that there is no pessimism with respect to the economy, but there also is no optimism. We're at an intermediate level, but it's clear that confidence has been on the increase,” explained researcher Johnny Madrigal.

The study also found that 41.6% of those interviewed said President Oscar Arias' administration is doing a good job with economic and social policies, while 28.3% said he is doing “what's necessary” and 26.2% called his policies “poor.” The rest did not respond.

Additionally, the economic expectations index increased to 57.8 points, up from 49.9 points in November and 42.9 in August, reflecting that Costa Ricans are optimistic about the economy this year.

Of those interviewed, 72% said they expect their family's income to increase in the next 12 months.

According to researchers, positive results on these indexes are a result of the country's positive economic figures shown at the end of last year, when inflation dipped below 10% (9.43%), interest rates dropped and exports increased.

The study was carried out Feb. 1-9 through phone calls to 721 homes. It claims a 3.7% margin of error.

-ACAN-EFE

Gas Prices on the Up and Up

The trend of climbing gas prices has continued so far this year. The Public Services Regulatory Authority (ARESEP) Tuesday approved an increase in the price of regular and super gas, according to a statement from ARESEP.

The hike will increase the price of one liter of super gas from ¢466 ($0.90) to ¢483 ($0.93), while regular gas will jump from ¢440 ($0.85) to ¢459 ($0.88). Additionally, one liter of airplane fuel will increase from ¢482 ($0.93) to ¢511 ($0.98).

ARESEP approved these price increases upon reviewing a request from National Oil Refinery (RECOPE) citing fuel price variations on the international market, the statement said.

These new prices will go into effect as soon as they are printed in the official government daily La Gaceta, expected no later than Monday.

This price increase follows a 2.23% increase in the gas tax, which is subject by law to review every three months because of inflation. The tax increase -- which applies to super and regular gas, diesel fuel, airplane fuel and cooking gas -- went into effect yesterday.

Yesterday, the price of diesel also went up from ¢347 ($0.67) to ¢349 ($0.67) while cooking gas increased from ¢262 ($0.50) to ¢263 ($0.51), marking the second increase in gas prices so far this year, according to the daily La Nación.

-Tico Times

Bypass wasn't getting along too well with his wife of 40 years. He wouldn't tell me why, but I concluded it was a simple case of what in the trade we call OS, or Overfamiliarity Syndrome. Two people living together that long know exactly what each is going to say in any given situation, but the one with OS, on hearing the same dumb joke for the thousandth time, is liable to rush out of the house screaming, “I can't stand it any longer!”

Normal couples deal with the problem by preserving a companionable silence from breakfast to suppertime, but that option was not open to Bypass. While he himself was a man of few words, his wife was the original motormouth, whose maximum silent time was one minute.

So Bypass tried another option. Two doors down the street lived a comely divorcée by the name of Clara, who went on monthlong cruises twice a year, financed by a generous alimony. So at the next street party, Bypass, fortified by strong drink, drew her aside and said, “Clarer, will you take me on your next cruise?” Clara immediately responded, “Sure. Next week suit you?” Bypass, who had come prepared for an argument, was taken aback by this glib response, and promptly assumed she was a loose woman, but managed to stammer out, “F-fine, I'll give you a call.” Which, with some misgivings, he did, and after telling his wife he would be gone for a month on a business trip, he and Clara departed Miami in a first-class cabin bound for the Azores.

Novelty is an important component of any social relationship, so the couple had little problem getting along for the first eight hours. But from then on the escapade became, from one point of view, a total disaster. At dinner that night, Clara pronounced the Dover sole uneatable and the Chardonnay undrinkable, and sent back the baked Alaska three times before even tasting it. On returning to their luxurious cabin, she complained bitterly about the facilities and, worst of all, positively rejected any form of intimacy before Bypass even brought up the subject. And, it must be admitted, conversationally Bypass is a crashing bore.

From another point of view, however, the trip was a roaring success. Thoroughly fed up with each other, the couple abandoned the cruise after only a week and flew home separately. Bypass reported to his wife that he had cut short his business trip because he missed her, even going so far as to kiss her passionately that night. She, of course, being by no means stupid just because she talked too much, had readily guessed the truth, but responded in kind. Thereafter, Bypass learned simply to withdraw his attention while his wife was speaking, and the two lived together reasonably happily ever after.

The moral of this story is “Try a little harder before you try another.” Or how about “The grass is not necessarily greener two doors down the street”?