American Expatriate Costa Rica

2016: the sixth worst year in the history of dengue

The dengue virus arrived in 1993 to stay, as Costa Ricans have not learned that they can live without threats. As long as there are breeding grounds and carelessness, cases will persist.

For Rodrigo Marín, program manager of the Vector Control Department of the Ministry of Health, this year was one of the six worst years in the history of the disease.

In the last 11 years there was no record that exceeded more than the 50 thousand cases of dengue reported in 2013.

The second worst year was 2005 with 37,798 cases. Followed by 2010 with 31,484 cases, 2007 with 26,504 and 2012, with 22,243 reported cases.

This week, Zika cases reached 1,553 and it continues to show a stable downward trend.

In recent weeks, there have been no reports of more than 30 confirmed cases, while the focus was concentrated between the months of June and September.

At the beginning of the year and after analyzing the epidemic of zika in 4 countries, Marín predicted that Costa Rica could approach more than 2,100 infections, but the worst scenario predicted between 56, 000 and 122,000 cases.

The expert ruled out that the country has controlled zika infection, but said that the efforts and insistence made it less aggressive compared with other countries.

crhoy.com