Last year ended with 12 local cases of malaria and nine imported cases. However, it is important to remember that, by September 2017, the Ministry of Health declared a health alert because there were nine cases of local transmission.
Malaria is transmitted through a mosquito bite. The “Anopheles” mosquito transmits a parasite called “Plasmodium”. When people are infected they have intermittent fever, chills, sweating, and headaches, and muscle pain.
This disease is not transmitted from person to person, it is always necessary to have a mosquito bite. Unlike “Aedes Aegypti” -which transmits dengue, zika, and chikungunya- the “Anopheles” needs dirty water to reproduce.
Last September, the Ministry of Health explained that the high migration rate between Costa Rica and Nicaragua could be the most important factor in this rise in cases.
The first epidemiological bulletin this year also indicates that the previous year ended with 359 confirmed cases of zika. In addition, there were 90 pregnant women with the disease and seven cases of congenital microcephaly syndrome associated with zika.
In the case of Chikungunya, there were 396 cases that were confirmed throughout the year (in 2016 they were 3,612).
Dengue cases decreased from 23,319 in 2016 to 5,437 in 2017.