As if novel coronavirus COVID-19 weren’t enough to worry about, the Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) announced earlier this week that there has been a disturbing increase in child pornography cases in Costa Rica between 2014-2019, as reported by Interpol Crimes Against Children Taskforce. In 2015, 43 cases were investigated of child pornography, but that number has now risen to 137 cases....

The Costa Rican Ministry of Health confirmed that the total cases of Covid-19 in the country is up to 158 which includes 141 Costa Ricans and 17 foreigners, 68 women and 90 men. The government also announced new sanitary measures that aim to battle the spread of the virus, these include: Complete closure of all beaches Mandatory closure of all churches and places of religious gatherings In a...

Today Costa Rica has 113 confirmed cases of coronavirus COVID-19, ranging in age from 2-87 years old. 46 are women, 67 are men, 104 are Costa Rican, and 7 are foreigners. Two men have died. 951 people have been dismissed as not having the virus. Costa Rica has been under a National Emergency since Monday, March 16th. How do you know if you have the deadly virus? According to the Mayo Clinic ...

The Ministry of Health has confirmed to The Star the first death of a coronavirus patient in Costa Rica. An 87 year old man who remained in the intensive care unit of the Alajuela hospital. The President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, commented on social media “At 4:15 pm Costa Rica registered it’s first death as a result of Covid-19, a senior citizen. We solidarice with his family. Let’s react,...

The Government of Costa Rica declared State of Emergency this Monday, March 16 due to coronavirus, the document was signed by the President, Carlos Alvarado, the Minister of Health Daniel Salas, and the interim Minister of Presidency Silvia Lara. As part of the measures of the emergency state the Government announced that all public and private schools must remain closed from March 17th through...

Minister of Health Daniel Salas, confirmed during a press conference Sunday, March 15, that the cases of coronavirus in the country have gone up to 35 cases. The Minister showed visibly upset because the Government has been insisting non-stop on taking precautionary measures and asked for the help of all the population to take on preventive isolation and necessary measures, it also asked that b...

So far in Costa Rica we have had 35 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and we were the first Central American country to report the coronavirus, brought in by an American tourist couple. We have had no deaths so far (unlike Panama), but are ramping up for a possible tsunami of COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks. Does Canada have a coronavirus vaccine being developed today? Worldwide, COVID-19 has sic...

As of 6PM Thursday, March 12th, there were 23 confirmed cases of coronavirus COVID-19 in Costa Rica up from 22 on Wednesday the 11th. Authorities assured that they were prepared for a surge in that number, as has happened in other countries, Italy being a comparable small country with a well-developed medical system. Doctors, nurses and hospitals were standing by. Then the World Health Organizatio...

The number of people infected with Covid-19 went from 13 on Tuesday to 22 this Wednesday, confirmed the Ministry of Health during a press conference. The patients range from 10 to 73 years of age and include 14 women (one of them pregnant) and 8 men, 19 Costa Rican and 3 foreigners. “The Covid-19 is a pandemic and it is highly probable that it becomes a seasonal virus as it occurred with AH1N1....

Official sources confirm a total of 13 patients that are currently infected with coronavirus in Costa Rica, however, the list of suspicious cases continues to grow, currently with 179 people under observation and testing. The Ministry of Health confirmed they are investigating 175 people that had direct contact with a 54 year-old man that is positive for Covid-19 and was working at the Alajuela...

Costa Rica has confirmed nine cases of Coronavirus (Covid-19) and this Monday the Ministry of Health in coordination with the National Emergency Commission (CNE) informed that as of Tuesday, March 10, all massive events and activities, both free and paid, are canceled; also, the President gave orders for public institution employees to work from home when possible. The objective is to mitigate the...

At 6PM Sunday night, the Government of Costa Rica announced it had declared a Yellow Alert for the COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus. As of that time, the Ministry of Health declared nine confirmed cases of COVID-19 caused by the coronavirus, and 34 suspected cases. Of those confirmed cases, three are Americans, and six are Costa Ricans. This is an increase of five cases, just since Satur...

The Ministry of Health in Costa Rica confirmed this Friday, March 6, the first case of coronavirus Covid-19 in the country. The patient is a 49-year old American tourist who entered the country in March 1st without any symptoms. Apparently, it was her husband who was actually in contact with someone in New York infected with the virus, prior to them traveling to Costa Rica, and who at the time...

On Thursday, March 5th, Costa Rica reported its first suspected case of the coronavirus. A 52-year old Costa Rican woman from Pococi, Limon, returned on Tuesday from a family vacation to Italy and Tunisia, and began to experience symptoms of the virus on Thursday. Later that same day, her 47-year old niece also began to experience symptoms, causing the entire family to self-quarantine while they a...

The Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, confirmed that the Costa Rican Institute of Investigation and Teaching in Nutrition and Health (Inciensa) which is the national laboratory of reference in public health, already has the capacity to implement a specific lab test to diagnose COVID-19, commonly known as coronavirus. The test is a molecular test known as a real-time polymerase chain reaction (...

In January 2020, a quartet of Tico microbiologists of University of Costa Rica (UCR) announced in the Journal of Entomology, that after an absence of decades, bed bugs are definitely back in Costa Rica. Horrors. Who even remembers what they look like? Bed bugs are about the size of an apple seed, before they feed. They usually feed at night, and always on human or animal blood. After ten or so mi...

On Monday, the Costa Rican Minister of Health announced that he has activated protocols to combat the new coronavirus, known internationally as COVID-19. The virus has appeared so far in countries such as China, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Iran, United States, Canada and Italy. The first Latin American COVID-19 patient was identified on Monday, a Brazilian who contracted the virus in Italy. Ther...

UPDATED: Feb/4/2020 The cases of deaths due to coronavirus in China have reached 427, while the Center for Disease Control, (CDC) has confirmed 11 US cases, 12 Cases in Australia and 4 Cases in Canada. This has health authorities worldwide in alert and Costa Rica is not the exception. In total almost 21,000 Cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed of which 2700 are in critical condition. ...

President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado and the Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, signed this week the "technical norm for the therapeutic interruption of pregnancy" for cases where the health or life of the pregnant women is in danger, as a guideline and in support of what Article 121 of the Criminal Code states. The Ministry of Health elaborated the text of this technical norm which was sent...

Costa Rica has cultivated a reputation as a medical tourism mecca. Patients come from all over the world to take advantage of the highly trained medical teams operating in Costa Rican hospitals, at prices often lower than in other countries. Now there’s a return of a problem first discovered in 2017: illegal organ trafficking. The illegal organ trafficking business was first brought to light tw...

The Social Security Service (CCSS) announced it will be investing over $1.6 billion USD in infrastructure and equipment throughout the entire national territory during the 2019-2022 period. The information was released this Wednesday by President of Costa Rica Carlos Alvarado, the executive president of CCSS, doctor Roman Macaya and architect Gabriela Murillo, manager of infrastructure. During ...

The Ministry of Health in Costa Rica issued an alert due to the severity of the cases received this year of young children with Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Respiratory Syncytial Virus causes more serious health problems in children under 1 year of age, and up to two years of age. A child with a chronic health problem is especially at risk for serious illness. RSV affects small passages of t...

Costa Rica positions itself among the countries with higher survival rate for breast cancer according to the study “Cancer Facts & Figures 2018” of the American Cancer Society. The revision of the international results, considering the deaths due to breast cancer after five years of receiving diagnosis, reveal that the nations with higher survival rate are between 85% and 90%. Costa Rica...

As of noon Friday, the Social Security Service (CCSS) had been forced to suspend 57,536 patient appointments after almost a week of strike which affected over 39% of public health appointments. Close to 20% of the employees are taking part of the strike, which mainly include nurses, support personnel, and personnel in the area of health technologies; also 578 general medical doctors and 408 spe...

The Ministry of Health in Costa Rica issued an alert this week regarding the selling of tainted alcohol, after 19 people, most of them homeless, passed away after an apparent intoxication, the deaths took place between the months of June and July. The alcohol they drank apparently contained methanol. 14 of the victims were men and 5 women, between the ages of 32 and 72. The Ministry of Health c...

The U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort will arrive to Puntarenas, Costa Rica this Sunday, July 21 to offer medical attention between Tuesday, July 3 and Saturday, July 27. This hospital ship is on a five-month deployment to Central and South America as well as the Caribbean in support of humanitarian and partner-building efforts as part of the U.S. Southern Command´s Enduring Promise Initiati...

The pill known as “morning-after” pill, used as an emergency contraception method is now available in Costa Rica after receiving green light from the Ministry of Health. Pharmaceutical house Quinfica is the company distributing the “morning-after” pill under the name Posterga, and it will be sold in pharmacies for a price of 18 thousand colones (approximately $31.00 USD). Posterga will be ...

This Monday, June 3, 2019, Costa Rica kicked off  the first ever vaccination campaign to protect young girls against Human Papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection and some types lead to cervix cancer, the vaccine is now part of the national vaccination program and will be applied free of charge by social security to 10-year-old girls. Cervical cancer is th...

Last year NBC News named cigarette butts as the single greatest source of ocean pollution – far surpassing the recently demonized plastic straws or single use plastic bags. The momentum of banning plastic straws continues to grow with major corporations taking up the fight and gradually phasing out straws completely. However, many experts believe that the focus of ocean pollution and litter should...

Here’s something brilliant that Costa Rica has achieved in the last thirty years: They have doubled their forest cover. Half of Costa Rica’s land surface is now covered with trees. Those trees can absorb a massive amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and we can all breathe easier for it. Bravo! No one would have predicted this outcome back in 1983 when a meager 26% of Costa Rica had f...

The Ministry of Health and the General Directorate of Migration in Costa Rica are working on the requirements to begin implementing a regulation for foreigners requesting their residence in the country to comply with the national vaccination program starting July 2019. According to Rodrigo Marín, director of Health Surveillance, every year the Migration office in Costa Rica receives anywhere be...

Located adjacent to The Retreat Costa Rica on Crystal Mountain and overlooking a tropical organic coffee plantation with Pacific Ocean views, the opening of a new 7,000 square foot Vida Mia Ayurvedic Healing Center and Spa is set to open proudly on Saturday, June 8, 2019. This will be the debut of the first Ayurvedic healing center in Costa Rica and will include a healer from Kerala, India special...

Costa Rican company Vertical CR is currently waiting for permission from the Ministry of Health to be able to commercialize its health products based on medicinal marijuana. The company offers oils, lotions, pills, among other products for human use and even for dogs all of them using marijuana for medicinal purposes, eliminating THC, the chemical responsible for most of marijuana’s psychologic...

Four of the nine children of a US family living in Cabuya, Cóbano, Puntarenas, tested positive for measles and has been confirmed by the Ministry of Health this week. The minors are currently under isolation in their home along with the rest of the rest of their family. The US natives are missionaries who apparently became in contact with the virus when they received a visit of another missi...

Canadian site Globehunters published information based on data by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) about where it is safe to drink tap water around the world. The results indicate that there are 187 countries where drinking tap water should be avoided, “It is important to note that this does not mean that water in a country is unsafe or polluted, just that as a tourist, your body will no...

For months now Costa Rican health authorities have been insisting on the vaccination of children against measles due to outbreaks of this virus in different parts of the continent; yesterday, the Ministry of Health confirmed that this virus is back in the country, an imported case from France. A family of French tourist, the parents 30 and 35 years of age and their 5-year-old child, have been ...

Costa Rica used to import between 12,000 to 15,000 tons of avocados from Mexico – the world’s largest exporter and producer of this popular fruit. In May 2015, Costa Rica banned this Mexican delicacy due to the risk of Avocado Sunblotch Viroid (ASVB) disease. Trees infected with ASVB show no signs of the disease until the fruit is opened, and inferior quality is revealed. Infected trees have a 30%...

The governor of Washington, Jay Inslee, declared sanitary emergency state due to a measles outbreak that has affected some 30 people since the beginning of the year. Costa Rican health authorities insist on vaccination campaign for children under 10 years of age. Inslee, explained through a press release that Washington has a very low vaccination rates and therefore there is an “extreme risk t...

Nine out of ten people in the world breath air with contamination levels that are higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), being aware of this problem is what inspired a Costa Rican company to create “Essential Air”, cans of 100% rainforest air from Costa Rica. "WHO estimates that around 7 million people die every year from exposure to fine particles in polluted air...

In order to prevent shortage of blood during this end of the year, the Social Security Service in Costa Rica (CCSS) calls on donors to approach the Blood Bank in Zapote. According to their estimations, they need at least 423 donors to handle the demand. The Blood Bank will be operating normally December 26, 27 and 28 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. One donor can save as many as 4 lives; so far this y...