Costa Rica: Dengue, chikungunya, and Zika outbreaks

Event

According to figures released by the Costa Rican government on February 15, there have been a total of 52 probable or confirmed cases of the Zika virus registered in the country since the beginning of the year, along with 115 cases of dengue fever and five cases of chikungunya. A nationwide campaign to reduce populations of the Aedes aegypti mosquito - a carrier of all three diseases - continues.

While remaining a health threat, transmission rates of mosquito-borne diseases have fallen significantly over the past year. To compare, 2714 cases of Zika were reported in 2017, and 5635 in 2016.

Context

Symptoms of dengue fever include fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, fatigue, nausea, and rashes. Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) is a potentially deadly complication that is characterized by high fever, the enlargement of the liver, and hemorrhaging.

Symptoms of chikungunya include fever, headache, joint and muscle ache, fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, and rashes. The virus is infrequently fatal but potentially debilitating joint pain can last for weeks, even months, after the initial recovery.

Although the Zika virus is usually relatively benign, links between it and severe birth defects as well as the potentially fatal neurological disorder Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) have been established.

Advice

Individuals present in Costa Rica - in particular pregnant women and their partners - are advised to take measures to protect themselves from mosquito bites (e.g. by wearing covering clothing, using insect repellent, and sleeping in screened-in or air conditioned rooms) and to eliminate possible mosquito breeding grounds (small pockets of fresh water, such as rain water that has collected in cans, bottles, tires, flower pots, clogged gutters, etc.).