A gentleman from Ghana was taken to the Calderón Guardia Hospital in the capital city of San Jose on Saturday afternoon for the purpose of ruling out infection by the Ebola virus. According to a report filed by Karla Barquero of online news daily CRHoy.com, the man was approached by officers from the Fuerza Publica (the national police force of Costa Rica) detachment in the district of La Merced and questioned on his immigration status.

 

The detention took place in Barrio Mexico, a working-class suburb of San Jose. The African man did not carry identification papers and was taken to the Directorate of Immigration to ascertain his legal status in Costa Rica. Upon learning the man was from Ghana, immigration officials loosely invoked the Ebola protocol that the Ministry of Public Health announced a few days ago.

 

Fuerza Publica was instructed by immigration officials to take the man to the Calderón Guardia Hospital, where medical personnel took his temperature and perform a quick assessment before turning him over to the police and immigration officials. Hospital staff denied knowledge of an Ebola protocol, which is similar to the H1N1 protocol that was first enacted in Costa Rica a few years ago.

 

Journalist Lady Rojas of CRHoy.com posted an update to this news report, whereby administrators from the Calderón Guardia Hospital and from La Caja (Costa Rica’s public health system) explained that epidemiologists will be reviewing their procedures with their staff since an Ebola protocol has already been in place for a few days, which is the reason immigration officials requested that the gentleman from Ghana be transported to the hospital for assessment; although he should have been taken to the Hospital Mexico, which is a lot closer to the Directorate of Immigration in La Uruca.