POSITHIV+: This exhibit of photos by Spanish photographer Pep Bonet entitled POSITHIV+ is on display at the Spanish Cultural Center in San José's Barrio Escalante through Friday. His work, which illustrates the effect the HIV/AIDS epidemic on Africa, is traveling through Latin America and Spain this year; for more information, call 257-2919.

Citing a 167% increase in the cases of dengue this week compared to the same period last year, Vice-Minister of Health Lidieth Carballo yesterday warned Costa Ricans not to let their guard down against this mosquito-transmitted disease.

“Flying Carpet”
Exhibit of works by 165 women from around the world, through Saturday, Casa de Arte Curime de Nicoya, northwestern Guanacaste province. Info: www.flyingcarpet.ch.

Expo Real Estate and Construction 2007
Today through Sunday, International Mall, Alajuela, northwest of San José. Info: 364-9354.

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

The results of a U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) study released yesterday proved what health and education authorities say they already knew to be true – children and adolescents in Costa Rica's indigenous communities have less access to these services than the rest of the population.

Carlos Van Der Laat, a physician contracted by UNICEF for the study, explained that in Costa Rica's eight indigenous territories, 47.6% of the inhabitants are 18 or younger.

This sizeable population of young people faces challenges such as no access to potable water or a sanitary way to dispose of waste. Only 66% of indigenous homes have latrines, meaning human and animal wastes contaminate water sources and cause illness, according to the study.

Indigenous young people, most of whom live in the Caribbean and along the border with Panama, also often suffer from low self esteem brought on by mainstream Costa Rican society perceiving them as poor or backward. As a result, drug and alcohol abuse, violence and sexuality issues may arise.

“We've always thought, ‘oh the poor indigenous' and given them clothes and food, but what we've never given them are teachers,” Van Der Laat said, explaining that a lack of education about sanitary practices and family planning perpetuate the cycle of sickness and poverty.

The study found that one of the main education challenges facing these communities is a lack of qualified teachers. About 58% of teachers in these areas are “ aspirantes ” with only a high school education.

“It's no secret for anyone that our education system is exclusive,” remarked David Fernández, adviser to the Vice-Minister of Public Education, after hearing the study's findings.

Fernández, along with César Gamboa, of the Public Health Ministry, pointed to efforts their ministries have under way to change policies that discriminate against the indigenous. They thanked UNICEF for providing solid data they can use in their work.

The office of President Oscar Arias recently received a letter signed by more than 200 scientists from around the world asking him to protect beaches in the northwestern Guanacaste province, where endangered leatherback turtles nest.

According to a statement from the Marine Turtle Restoration Program (PRETOMA), the letter urges Arias to curb the “irresponsible real estate development” that is destroying these beaches and infringing on the Las Baulas National Marine Park.

“The current development of tourism infrastructure on our beautiful Guanacaste coast is out of control, and municipal authorities have shown they lack not just resources, but also political will to adequately comply with regulations,” said PRETOMA president Randall Arauz, according to the statement.

The letter, signed at the International Sea Turtle Symposium held late last month in the U.S. state of South Carolina, points out that numbers of this fragile species dropped 90% during the past 20 years and could plummet to extinction in the Pacific within 15 years. Costa Rica is obligated to protect the Las Baulas park as a nesting place for the few remaining turtles, it says.

Foreign real estate investors continue to eye the beach, and the international conservation community is pleading with Arias to “save it from its imminent destruction,” the statement said.

-Tico Times

Citing a 167% increase in the cases of dengue this week compared to the same period last year, Vice-Minister of Health Lidieth Carballo yesterday warned Costa Ricans not to let their guard down against this mosquito-transmitted disease.

“The moment we give up the fight, we're going to continue seeing an increase in cases,” Carballo said during a press conference following President Oscar Arias' weekly Cabinet meeting.

Last week, the ninth on the “epidemiological calendar,” there were 3,010 reported cases of dengue, concentrated in the northwestern Guanacaste, Caribbean and Central Pacific regions. Additionally, 29 cases of deadly hemorrhagic dengue were reported, all in Guanacaste, she said.

Last year saw a 73% drop in cases of dengue nationwide (TT, Dec. 22, 2005), but an outbreak of this disease, known as “bone-break fever,” hit Guanacaste beginning in November 2006 and continued through the New Year, flooding Enrique Baltodano Briceño Hospital in Liberia (TT, Jan. 19).

Carballo said she expects cases of this disease to decrease in the following three weeks, but that residents should continue to clear their homes of water-collecting containers that could become mosquito breeding grounds.

The Vice-Minister also reported yesterday on the sanitary emergency the government declared over whooping cough late last month after four babies died from this respiratory disease.

The Public Health Ministry expects to receive whooping cough vaccines from the World Health Organization (WHO) within the next two weeks. They will be distributed to mothers who have recently given birth, the group most likely to spread this disease to children. The ministry's vaccination campaign will continue for one year, during which it hopes to obtain 140,000 doses of the vaccine, according to a statement from Casa Presidencial.