Published Wednesday, May 13, 2020 

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Patients recovered from covid-19 donated blood to Social Security where it is already being analyzed by scientists at the Clodomiro Picado Research Institute, as a prior step before the development of the treatment against the coronavirus.

Those who will be in charge of this work are 10 professionals from the clinical laboratory of the National Blood Bank. They are working to discover if the donated blood has any infectious virus; among them, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or the presence of the viruses that cause hepatitis A and hepatitis B, reported the University of Costa Rica on Tuesday.

If a pathogen is found in the donated blood, this material cannot be used in the preparation of the drug due to the high risk of infection that it would imply in the recipient's health. In this case, the substance will be discarded.

"The person who needs the medicine must be sure that the product will not infect him with another disease," said Dimelsa Suárez-Chacón, deputy director of the laboratory. "The Clinical Laboratory of the National Blood Bank  is the only one in the country with fully automated equipment to generate these tests."

The tests being applied are known as nucleic acid amplification tests and function to find the genetic material of the viruses. These tests are highly sensitive and specific; they provide great security in the results, the specialists said in its statement.

According to scientists, these tests can detect the infection in less time, unlike conventional methods in which the tests can take up to months to give a positive result after the person becomes infected.

The laboratory can process about 275 samples in 8 hours, a key speed in this emergency. Likewise, samples can be analyzed at any time. If they are less than 100 samples, they can have the first results in approximately four hours, they said.

The process that the Laboratory will use consists of the blood samples being subjected to strict quality control. The sample is first verified to be in optimal condition and at a suitable temperature. Then the centrifugation process is carried out to separate its components. The final result is entered into the automated analyzer.

That analyzer machine will give the result if the test is positive or negative for any of the three studied viruses.

If the blood does not have any infectious virus, then begins the manufacturing of the drug.

The Institute is expected to start soon with the production of the plasma that will be applied as a treatment to active patients with covid-19.


On Tuesday afternoon the Ministry of Health reported, 277 active patients in Costa Rica infected with the covid-19. Active patients are people who currently have the virus.

Authorities provided the following statistics related to the development of the covid-19 in the country:

• Of the 804 infected since the first case was detected in March, 520 coronavirus patients have fully recovered.

• There was an overnight increase of 3 new patients infected with the covid-19. It was also reported 3 new patients fully recovered.

• The ages of those affected range from 1 to 87 with an average age of 37.

• 21 patients are being treated in public hospitals, where 15 are in recovery rooms and 6 have been reported in an Intensive Care Unit with delicate health conditions. Most of the infected patients are quarantined in their homes.

• 113 foreigners infected, of these 14 entered the country unauthorized and are jailed in the facilities of the Professional Migration Police in Heredia Province.

According to the authorities, 33 foreigners working as truck drivers transporting merchandise were rejected to enter the country at the Peñas Blancas Border Post, on the Nicaraguan border, because they tested positive for covid-19.

• 11,329 people have been ruled out.

• 17,470 medical covid-19 tests have been made.

• Seven deaths have been reported from patients infected with covid-19.

The summary of the cases are as follow:

On May 10, it was reported the death of an 80-year-old foreigner who lived in Alajuela. He was diagnosed with the virus on May 9 and admitted into the Intensive Care Unit, ICU, at Enrique Baltodano Briceño Hospital in Liberia, Guanacaste Province.

On April 20, it was reported the death of a 54-year-old Cuban national and Costa Rican resident. He was diagnosed with the coronavirus on March 6. That same day he was admitted into ICU at México Hospital in San José Province. He was identified as a superspreader of the covid-19, linked to 81 people infected with covid-19.

On April 19, a 69-year-old Costa Rican who was diagnosed with the coronavirus on March 25 died. He was admitted into ICU at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in San José on March 28. 

On April 15, an 84-year-old Costa Rican man who had tested positive for covid-19 on April 1. He was admitted into ICU at the same hospital, San Juan de Dios, on April 5.

On April 8, the death of a 45-year-old Costa Rican was reported. He entered the country from the U.S. in March, where it is presumed he was infected. He was hospitalized for 10 days in the ICU of the same hospital, San Juan de Dios.

On March 20 the death of an 87-years-old patient was reported. He was hospitalized in the ICU at San Rafael Hospital in Alajuela Province.

A few days earlier, on March 18 the first patient died, 87. He was hospitalized in the ICU at the same Alajuela Hospital.

The updated number of total patients in each district can be reached at the National Distance Education University on its Covid-19 Map.

As of Monday night, the pandemic has killed 291,366 patients worldwide according to recent statistics reported by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.



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Should health authorities increase the number of scientific staff to speed the process of producing the treatment for covid-19 infected patients?    We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com