Second study begins for Costa Rican
treatment against covid-19

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

After the first study on the treatment against covid-19 made with a serum extracted from horse blood was carried out in August 2020, Social Security and the University of Costa Rica will start a second study to determine the effects in higher doses to patients.
The goal is to increase the doses to patients infected with covid-19 who are being treated at public hospitals such as the Covid Hospital, Calderón Guardia, San Juan de Dios and Mexico.

In July 2020, specialists from George Mason University, in Virginia, U.S.A., confirmed that the treatment developed by Costa Rican scientists at Clodomiro Picado Research Institute is capable of inhibiting the infectivity of the SARS-Cov2 coronavirus, which produces the covid-19.

Costa Rican scientists sent samples of the treatment to George Mason to obtain an alternative result of the effectiveness of the treatment against covid-19 in cells.

George Mason has one of the highest biosafety laboratories in the U.S. for testing live viruses in an environment with all the conditions of isolation and biosecurity. This allowed for the plasma to demonstrate how it neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 and how it is 100 times more powerful than convalescent plasma obtained from humans, the university said in its statement.

Health authorities are racing against time to find a cure for covid-19 while statistics have shown a continued increase in newly infected cases as well as deaths due to the virus. As of Monday, the ministry provided the following statistics on the status of the virus in the country:

• 149,812 doses of covid-19 vaccines have been applied. Reaching a national vaccination rate of 2.9 per 100 inhabitants.

• 108 new covid-19 cases are reported, bringing the total to 20,423 current active cases.

• 25,313 foreign-born people have been infected as part of the 205,086 cases since March, approximately 12.3% of the total cases. Of these, authorities confirmed the death of 32 foreign-born patients. But since October, there is no updated information about foreign-born deaths due to covid-19.

• 253 patients are being treated in public hospitals, where 145 patients are in ICUs in delicate health conditions. And 108 patients are in recovery rooms. Many of the remaining infected patients are quarantined in their homes.

• 181,851 patients have fully recovered, an 87% recovery rate of the total cases since March.

• 690,013 covid-19 tests have been conducted in Costa Rica since March, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering of Johns Hopkins University in the U.S.

• 2,812 deaths are listed as covid-19 related, approximately 1.4% death rate.


Readers can see the current number of infected people in each district on the National Distance Education University on its Covid-19 Map.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the pandemic has killed more than 2.5 million people worldwide.

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Should authorities speed up the study on this treatment against covid-19? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com

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