What could be more paradoxical than kids in the newly proclaimed wellness tourism capital lacking outdoor areas to get exercise and have fun? Well, strangely enough, many rural areas in Costa Rica - whether due to hilly terrain, very wet climates, and other environmental and political factors present in this tropical country - do not have safe or apt areas for kids, especially young ones, to ru...

--Study will evaluate NIH’s experimental DNA vaccine. Vaccinations have begun in a multi-site Phase 2/2b clinical trial testing an experimental DNA vaccine designed to protect against disease caused by Zika infection. The vaccine was developed by U.S. government scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)....

When we think about leading causes of death in the United States, we probably think about heart disease or perhaps a type of cancer; however, a recent investigation by the New York Times states that drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 50 year-of-age. That's right, more than gun violence, car accidents and heart attacks.  Parents are burying their children from O...

The Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS), which runs the country's national public health system, announced the availability of a highly effective treatment for Hepatitis C. Whereas previously the virus was visually impossible to treat in a definitive manner, a pill became available in the U.S. in 2014 which gave up to 99 percent cure rates using a 12 - 24 week treatment, according to scie...

Over 1,000 people in the area of Garabito, Puntarenas have been affected by a conjunctivitis outbreak, this includes the areas of Herradura, Jacó, Tárcoles, Quebrada Ganado and Quebrada Amarilla, according to information provided by the Costa Rica Public Health and Social Security Administration (C.C.S.S). Authorities suspect the outbreak is caused by a virus, but the C.C.S.S. is still waiting ...

Photo: Archive Conchal Reserve and The Westin Golf Resort and Spa Playa Conchal donated new facilities for the local EBAIS (Basic Equipment for Comprehensive Health Care), the local public health care center that provides attention to neighbors of the communities of Brasilito, La Garita, Huacas, Flamingo and Potrero in Guanacaste. The inauguration of the new location in Brasilito, Cabo Velas...

The University of Costa Rica's San Pedro, San José campus will host a free, public symposium consisting of three talks in English on different neuropsychology topics on Friday, August 11 at 1 p.m., announced the Professional Association of Psychologists of Costa Rica. The event, "Neuropsychology: Applications and Research," will delve into how cognitive neuroscience can lead to better understan...

Costa Rica's lead researcher on snakebites and anti-venom serums says the health problem is unattractive to pharmaceutical companies due to the low profit margin, reported the Spanish news agency EFE this week. In an interview with EFE, Alberto Alape Giron, professor of biochemistry at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) said, “It’s not profitable (for these firms) to manufacture anti-venoms and...

According to data by the World Health Organization, every three seconds a person in the world develops this neurodegenerative disease, but the majority of them do not receive a proper diagnosis or adequate support. Only 29 out of the 194 nations members of the World Health Organization have developed comprehensive plans to deal with this condition; among them Costa Rica, which has a national...

Costa Rican health officials will be assisted by four U.S. helicopters next week on a first-ever building project in the remote indigenous Talamanca region in the country's Limón province. The country's public health system administrators, the Costa Rican Social Security Agency or CCSS, will require the fly overs to do an exploratory tour, and also to transfer construction materials that will b...

The Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS, its initials in Spanish) will offer hormonal and psychological treatment to transsexual individuals, in order to avoid both physical and emotional complications; reported the agency yesterday, Monday, June 19. Last week, the CCSS board of directors approved an agreement instructing the medical management to establish an interdisciplinary health prof...

A study carried out by The Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) for the Climate Change Direction of the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment and Energie (MINAE), established that if the concentrations of contaminating particles in the air where within the limit established by the Word Health Organization, not only would the health and quality of life of the population ...

After selecting last November the Banco de Costa Rica to finance and manage a health infrastructure trust fund, the Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS) which runs the country's health services and the BCR signed the agreement last month to proceed with building health infrastructure throughout the country. According to María del Rocío Sáenz Madrigal, who this week was asked to resign as e...

After spending a month trying to make an appointment at the local public health clinic (EBAIS, is the acronym in Spanish) in Santa Maria de Dota, Delvin Jarquín left a message at health center last Monday, reported Costa Rica's Spanish daily CRHoy.com. He left a sign and put a chain with a padlock around the clinic gate. Between his frustration and then a bad experience his wife and son had at ...

Costa Rica's Emergency Medical Response Team is the first in the Americas to achieve the EMT recognition by the World Health Organization. Costa Rica's emergency response team (EMT) is now recognized among the world's emergency medical teams that can be deployed quickly when requested by countries affected by disasters or emergencies, said the WHO last week.     Meanwhile...

Costa Rica's Ombudsman's Office (Defensoria de los Habitantes) said this week that the top complaint received by their office is related to access to health services. The figure came to light in the agency's 2016-2017 Annual Report which analyzes progress and gaps in meeting recommendations of the United Nations human rights committees. Part of these recommendations refer to the need to ensu...

(Photo Credit: Fernando Goldoni/Facebook) "Every thirty minutes in Costa Rica, someone arrives to one of the hospitals with a cardiovascular problem, and close to 1,500 Costa Ricans require an open heart surgery every year, although only close to 700 are able to get one", according to data provided by doctor Elliot Garita from the International Heart Foundation (Fundación Internacional del Corazó...

Health is Wealth they say…and without a doubt health is indeed the most important thing a person can hope to have, yet it is probably also one of the things we usually take for granted; many times we don’t invest enough in our well-being, we think twice about paying that doctor’s appointment but we don’t hesitate on buying a new pair of shoes or spending the money on something we really like, we d...

While it might be tempting to grab a bag of inexpensive fruit from a street vendor on your next trip to downtown San José, you should think twice about the quality of what you are buying. San José municipal police are amping up their operations in the center to curb informal sales of products along the streets. On a patrol this week, police on bicycle retrieved bags of fruit hidden in storm ...

María del Rocío Sáenz Madrigal, executive president of the country's social security agency (CCSS), noted that Costa Rica's health care system stands out for its provision of pain management, saying it is, "one of the few countries that provides palliative support to the population that is in terminal phase or that has chronic pain," said Saénz. Her observations come as the new headquarters of ...

Panama's ex-dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega died Monday night at age of 83 at the Santo Tomas hospital in Panama City, the hospital announced on Tuesday. Noriega, who ruled Panama from 1983 until he was toppled by a US invasion in December 1989, was extradited to the Central American country on Dec. 11, 2011, after serving more than 20 years in American and French prisons on drug trafficking an...

According to data by the Costa Rica’s Social Security Service (CCSS), every week 3 Costa Ricans are diagnosed with oral cancer, and 2 die as a consequence of it. In the United States and according to the Oral Cancer Foundation “Close to 49,750 Americans will be diagnosed with oral oropharyngeal cancer this year. It will cause over 9,750 deaths, killing roughly 1 person per hour, 24 hours per day. ...

Data from the Costa Rican Health Ministry for the first nearly five months of 2017 show a decrease in the number of new dengue cases compared to last year. Additionally, last year there were three strains of the virus circulating, and this year only two have been detected. Atenas and Montes de Oro in the Central Pacific foothills are the top two counties with dengue cases this year. Miramar nea...

The University of Costa Rica's School of Pharmacy has invited an internationally renowned export on market regulation of cannabis, Julio Calzada, to lead a free conference on the topic. Calzada is a Uruguayan sociologist and politician with over 30 years experience in health promotion projects notably those designed to reduce harm in the use of illicit drugs. Such programs, known as "harm reduc...

Foundation Casa GiáMaLa in Costa Rica reached an agreement with foundation DKMS of Germany, the biggest bone marrow donor center in the world, to have access to their data base and also import bone marrow. Leukemia is very common form of cancer in the blood, many children and adults in Costa Rica are diagnosed with this disease every year; a bone marrow transplant is the best treatment option f...

This year’s doses of flu vaccines are on there way to Costa Rica, and the public health system announced they will launch a US$5.3 million seasonal immunization campaign in June. The Costa Rica Social Security Agency (CCSS) which runs the national public health system of clinics and hospitals, said they aim to vaccinate 1.3 million people this year. Because influenza viruses change from year to...

A report presented last week by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said their teams in Mexico treating migrants show a “pattern of violent displacement, persecution, sexual violence, and forced repatriation akin to the conditions found in the deadliest armed conflicts in the world today,” in people fleeing El Salvador, Hondura...

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as part of their PISA evaluation (Program for International Student Assessment) 2015, in their report “Students’ Well Being”, which was released at the end of April and includes a chapter on bullying, Costa Rica is the second country in Latin America with more bullying cases among the countries that are part of the OECD....

The Manuel Mora Valverde Hospital in the southern Costa Rican city of Golfito near the Panama border recently received an investment of approximately US$1.8 million to renovate and upgrade their outpatient care, operating rooms, neonatal care, and hospitalization area, said the Costa Rican Social Security Agency which runs the country's public health care facilities. In February surgeons at the...

San Francisco de Heredia will soon be home to Oxígeno, a unique recreational and commercial space that combines nature and human relaxation in a development that “will be unique in the world," said Cuestamoras board president Manuel Zuñiga. Cuestamoras, owners of the Fischel pharmacy chain in Costa Rica, “is committed to becoming a multibusiness leader in the Americas across a range of industri...

Maybe you are planning to travel to Costa Rica for your vacation and at the same time get some dental work done since you know that it is much more affordable in Costa Rica ?. Perhaps you are already on vacation and you are suddenly tormented by a toothache or other dental emergency, but how do you go about choosing the right dentist in Costa Rica? There are a lot of dentists in Costa Rica, clo...

Living in a foreign country can present many challenges, language being one of them. Costa Rica is home to a large number of expats, many who only speak English, fortunately many Costa Ricans speak a high level of English and expats have also identified the need and taken the opportunity to offer different services exclusively for this segment of the population; rehabilitation programs and recover...

Mexico's Lower House of Congress passed a bill on Friday to legalize the use of marijuana and cannabis for medical and scientific needs, a step closer to outright legalization in a country long scarred by warring drug cartels. The bill sailed through the Senate in December and will now be sent to President Enrique Pena Nieto, who is expected to sign it. "The ruling eliminates the prohibition...

In July 1999, 21-year-old Claire McFarlanel was brutally raped and left almost dead in the streets of Paris, France when she was about to take a cab home after leaving work. Her attacker was captured 10 years later by means of DNA tests; since her attack, she has been fighting for her cause in the French courts. Last year, McFarlanel, now 38, started what she says is the "biggest journey of her...

Doctors from the Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS) are joining a medical mission from Texas this week to provide a variety of health services to residents of several indigenous villages in the Chirripó de Turrialba region, said Heylin Quesada Alvarado, medical director of the Turrialba-Jiménez Health Area The medical team with visit the Cabecar indigenous communities of Boyei, Grano de ...

The novel 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, is a trending topic these days among teenagers and concerned parents, especially after Netflix released the drama series based on the book. For those that are not familiar with this novel, it basically tells the story of a teenage girl, Hannah Baker, who kills herself and left behind a series of tapes for the people she blames for her suicide, explaining h...

This week, Costa Rican public health officials are launching an “intense information and education campaign … with the goal of having Ticos incorporate in their daily diet more salads and fruits, water as a main drink, use weekly meal plans, and internalize the concept of a ‘healthy plate’,” said the Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS). The most comprehensive data on obesity shows a 275 p...

Health officials point to a disturbing continuation of high teenage pregnancy rates, and ready access by children in Costa Rica to pornography, and are calling for stronger sexual education in the country’s schools. On any given day, around 35 teenagers give birth to a child in Costa Rica, according to public health data. And though the trend has seen some recent declines, the numbers are fa...

Santa Ana's new public recreational park will be ready in December of this year, according to local news reports. It will be located in the downtown plaza in front of the Santa Ana Catholic Church. Once completed, the facility a will include several exercise options as well as areas to gather and socialize. Work got underway on March 20, and organizers said the park project will be completed...

Earlier this month, one of San José, Costa Rica’s main public hospitals, the México Hospital, installed new modern ophthalmological units, in addition to other equipment. The Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS) which runs the state medical system, said an estimated 20,000 patients per year will benefit from the upgrade to the latest technologies for eye procedures and exams. The over U...