As of August, Costa Rican health officials confirmed three fatalities from dengue fever and over 19,000 infected patients.


Social Security notified the investigation of the third death of a dengue-infected patient on August 23. The case involved a 29-year-old male from Desamparados Canton, San José Province.


Additionally, the Ministry of Health announced the deaths of two people diagnosed with the virus on August 22. In both cases, the virus aggravated pre-existing conditions. Both patients were from Turrialba Canton, Cartago Province.

There are over 19,000 cases of dengue virus recorded by the Ministry of Health.

This record represents an increase of more than 12,000 infected people compared with the observed in the same period of 2023 when there were about 6,950 cases.

Alajuela Province had the most patients, with about 5,730 cases, followed by the provinces of Puntarenas with over 4,800 infected people and San José with about 3,600 patients.

The rest of the patients are from the provinces of Cartago (over 2,150 cases), Guanacaste (more than 1,000 patients), Limón (over 1,000 cases) and Heredia with more than 500 patients.

Authorities state that staff from the Vector Control Program have fumigated almost 80,000 homes where dengue infections are most common in the country.

Dengue causes flu-like symptoms and sometimes progresses to a life-threatening condition called severe dengue, formerly known as hemorrhagic dengue.

The virus is transmitted by the bite of an infected female Aedes aegypti mosquito. There are four types of the dengue virus: DEN 1, DEN 2, DEN 3 and DEN 4. Symptoms appear in 3–14 days, on average 4–7 days, after the infected bite. Dengue fever is a flu-like illness that affects infants, young children and adults.

There is no specific treatment for dengue fever. Severe dengue is potentially lethal, but early clinical diagnosis and careful clinical management may often save lives.

The only method to control or prevent dengue transmission is to fight against vector mosquitoes, authorities said.

Experts recommend the following precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the mosquito.

• Keeping a tidy home to prevent mosquitoes from finding places to lay their eggs.

• Properly removing solid waste and possible clean water deposits, no matter how small.

• Covering, emptying and cleaning water containers every week.

• Applying suitable insecticides to the containers in which water is stored outdoors.

• Using personal protection measures at home, such as window screens, long-sleeved clothing, repellents, insecticide-treated materials, coils and vaporizers.

  

Costa Rica closed 2023 with more than 26,400 cases of dengue fever.

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