A statement from the MSP specifies that due to the recent detection of eight more cases of this disease, officials will be monitoring house to house, and looking for people with fever to perform a fast test.
They will also administer treatment immediately confirming the diagnosis for the positive case and their cohabitants, they will check breeding sites with biological larvicides and they will deliver mosquito nets Impregnated with Long-Lasting Insecticide. The measures to contain the outbreak in that locality include strengthening passive surveillance in health centers through the provision of rapid malaria tests to be applied to any person with fever.
The statement said that four women and four men were detected, of which seven are hospitalized in stable condition and already have the respective medical evaluation and receiving timely treatment.
At epidemiological week 35, the MSP, through the Health Surveillance Directorate, counts 452 cases of malaria nationwide, of which 369 are classified as autochthonous, 59 imported, 4 introduced, 4 relapses and the rest under investigation for final classification.
Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite of the genus Plasmodium sp and transmitted to people mainly by the bite of an infected female mosquito of the genus Anopheles sp.
In Costa Rica it has been present with endemic characteristics since the 18th century, and transmission appears in large regions of the Caribbean slope and dispersed to other areas of the country.
ef/rgh/alb
