Although no Zika virus infections have been reported in Costa Rica as of mid-January, officials from the Ministry of Public Health (Spanish initials: MSP) are not taking any chances.

According to a news report published yesterday by El Nuevo Diario, a national newspaper in Nicaragua, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) will hold a workshop on this dangerous virus on February 2nd and 4th, and officials from Costa Rica are expected to attend. Officials from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama,  and the Dominican Republic are also expected to attend.

As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star:

The Zika virus, which has spread across a large part of Latin America, is the cause of abnormally small heads in newborn babies, a condition known as microcephaly, Brazil’s Health Ministry confirmed Saturday.

In Costa Rica, officials from the Ministry of Public Health are closely following the situation across Central America, where infections have already been reported, including three deaths in El Salvador.

Since last July, at least 739 cases of babies born with microcephaly have been detected in Brazil, a number five times greater than usually occurs in an entire year.

The PAHO describes Zika as a virus transmitted to humans by infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Zika infections cause symptoms including light fever, rash, conjunctivitis and muscle pain. Starting in March 2014 and through the first week of 2016, 14 countries and territories of the Americas reported cases of Zika infection. The Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) is working with its member countries in the region to prevent, detect and respond to this new threat.

The MSP has stepped up its call for a “national mobilization” in order to contain the virus-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito, responsible not only for the spread of Zika but also of dengue fever and Chikungunya.

Dengue and Chikungunya are two diseases that health officials in Costa Rica have closely monitored in the past. The mortality rate for dengue in Costa Rica is among the lowest in Latin America and among all nations affected by tropical diseases.