Costa Rica's "México" Hospital announced this week they successful conducted a state-of-the art heart valve replacement therapy called "valve in valve." This is the first time the procedure has been conducted in the country, and the first in all of Central America, said the hospital's press office. The patient, referred to as "Elizabeth" felt immediate improvements when on Wednesday she beca...

The Panamanian Tourism Authority (ATP, its initials in Spanish) announced this week they are considering reactivating a medical insurance option offered for free to visitors to the Central American country, said the government entity. The consideration to reopen the program comes in the wake of the killing of a taxi driver Tuesday, March 14 in the early morning hours in which two Canadians were...

Who should cover women’s maternity leave? Private companies, the state, or both? In Costa Rica, maternity leave has traditionally been a shared responsibility, but has often been criticized as harming women’s employment prospects, as employers can be reluctant to take on the extra costs in the event a woman gets pregnant. And firing a pregnant woman in Costa Rica is against the law, precisely t...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  Democrats across the board are hoping to remove President Trump from office within his first nine months with help from mainstream media who are churning out as many negative news stories about President Trump, his staff and his appointees as they can pr...

Costa Rica’s National Ombud’s Office reiterated the state’s obligation to provide full prenatal and maternal health services to all women irrespective of their migratory status in the country or their ability to pay for basic coverage. The office’s statement was in response to their recent investigation which found, among other things, that the state public health care provider (CCSS, its initi...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. By Britt Nelson So far the explainers have yet to explain much about President Donald Trump’s new American Health Care Act to replace President Obama’s Affordable Care Act AKA ObamaCare. The explanations from Republicans are vague and difficult to understand...

By Wendy Anders The Costa Rican Public Health System this week became the first institution in the Latin America and Caribbean region, and the seventh in the world to be internationally certified for its emergency and disaster relief services. The World Health Organization granted the emergency medical team of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), which runs the country’s universal pu...

Quimio Center in Costa Rica is a private healthcare center located in Pinares, Curridabat that was created with the idea of providing cancer patients with the best conditions to have their intravenous chemotherapy treatments, or any other intravenous treatment that requires long hours of administration. Quimio Center offers patients ambulatory care in a private and properly equipped area, which...

Contamination and a dirty, unhealthy, environment are making children sick and causing their death worldwide; in Costa Rica, close to one thousand children under 5 years of age die as a consequence of this, the majority are due to respiratory infections. Yet, Costa Rica has better conditions than most countries in the world. According to a report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) ...

US House Republicans on Monday presented their long-awaited plan to replace the Affordable Care Act pushed by former President Barack Obama, a much anticipated move after conservative lawmakers' repeated promises to do away with the current system, known as Obamacare. The GOP proposal is included in two bills, which basically aim to create a tax credit system to help people buy health insurance...

11 children from Costa Rica that suffer severe spinal cord problems will undergo surgery this week thanks to the cooperation of four U.S. Orthopedic Surgeons who are part of the Spine Hope Foundation. The chief of orthopedics of the Costa Rica Children Hospital, Jorge Alpízar, explained that the visit of the surgeons obeys to a cooperation agreement through which the specialists perform complex...

Rehabilitation is understood as the restoration of good health through therapy and training; however, this definition falls short in explaining all the elements that must converge in order to have a successful recovery. Experts understand that patients dealing with different types of addictions require of a rehab center that offers a comprehensive approach and provides the best possible conditions...

Costa Rican health authorities estimate needing 2,750 people to donate blood in March. “Why March?” you might ask. The public health system, run by the Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS) always does an extra push for blood donations to shore up stocks in advance of April’s Holy (Easter) Week. Holy Week, known in Spanish as Semana Santa, is, for less strict Catholics (meaning most o...

When searching for alcohol and drug addiction rehabilitation center alternatives many elements come into question, but probably one of the most common inquires and defining aspects has to do with the costs involved. Although both the United Stated and Costa Rica have great options for rehab centers, the cost of drug and alcohol addiction treatment is cheaper in Costa Rica. The reason for this i...

Technology plays an important role in our everyday life, there is no escaping this reality, things have changed considerably in the last two decades and sometimes it is hard to keep up; yet, the majority of these advances have come to make our life easier and better, for instance if we consider the health industry. The advances in the different health care areas are undeniable and help improve ou...

By Wendy Anders Last week, after a year of preparing for their first kidney transplant surgery, the public hospital in Cartago, Costa Rica successfully helped a man receive the much-needed procedure. Maria Eugenia Villalta Bonilla, medical manager of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS, in Spanish) hailed this as a milestone for the Max Peralta Hospital which can now offer a whole new...

Yesterday, February 15, was the International Childhood Cancer Day, a day that reminds us of all those strong children that are battling this sickness and whose lives have changed completely since their diagnose. In Costa Rica, the Association Against Childhood Cancer confirmed that 140 new cases are diagnosed every year. These children are cared for at the National Children Hospital, where the...

A recent survey by Delta Dental inquiring about the health practitioners adults would like to see more often, shows dentists leading the list. According to the study 41% of adult Americans consider they do not visit the dentist as often as they should or like. (Dermatologists come in second place with a 28% and Gynecologists third with a 25%) This survey also showed that 63% of adults consider ...

About a 65% of the Costa Rican population are either inactive or sedentary, according to the data provided by the 2016 Current Affairs Poll: Intensity of Physical Activity in Costa Rica, situation that can generate cases of obesity, stress and cause other ailments such as depression, diabetes, high blood pressure among others. According to the poll, women are more sedentary than men, a 71.8% of...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  By Britt Nelson “United we stand, divided we fall.” How many times have we heard that one? Politically the United States of America is split with Democrats fighting Republicans at fever pitch. Not much has changed in the U.S. Congress other than th...

The collection of taxes on tobacco does not even cover a 30% of the yearly cost social security has in providing healthcare to those suffering from diseases resulting from cigarette consumption, revealed an investigated coordinated by the Clinical and Sanitary Effectivity Institute of Argentina and the Costa Rica Ministry of Health with the participation of the Costa Rican Social Security Authorit...

The Costa Rican Social Security authority started implementing the pulse-oximetry screening tests in 28 health establishments for the detection of congenital heart conditions in newborn babies. The application of this screening test began in August of 2016 and so far 16 cases have been detected, out of which, two are severe and have required the intervention of specialized teams of the Costa Ri...

Scientists have shown conclusively that treatment not only improves the health of people infected with HIV, it also stops transmission of the virus that causes AIDS. That public health issue is just one of the challenges Republicans face as they attempt to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, a law that brought health insurance coverage to some 20 million people - including tens of thousands of Am...

Smoking pot in young adulthood does not seem to increase the risk of early stroke, but cigarette smoking does, according to a study of nearly 50,000 Swedish military conscripts. “Extensive tobacco smokers in late adolescence had a fivefold increased risk of stroke before age 45, when compared to non-smokers, and more than double the risk of stroke (up through) age 60,” study author Dr. Anna-Kar...

The four counties of Guanacaste with larger population are in red alert due to seasonal influenza. Since the beginning of December cases of cough and flu were reported and have increased in the hospitals Enrique Baltodano in Liberia and La Anexion in Nicoya. In the past two weeks 4 deaths were reported related to the seasonal influenza, these four patients had not been vaccinated. “We’ve...

The three dispensaries licensed to sell medical marijuana in Puerto Rico opened their doors on Friday to the 1,953 patients authorized to use cannabis for therapeutic purposes. Outgoing Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla marked the occasion with a visit to one of the dispensaries. Garcia Padilla, who hands over to successor Ricardo Rossello next Monday, signed the executive order legalizing medic...

By Wendy Anders Tourism to Guatemala for medical, health and wellbeing services brought in over US$66 million last year, and the sector is growing quickly. This year income from these specialized health services is expected to register 12.4 percent higher than last year’s sales, said the Guatemalan Export Associaction (Agexport) to Central America’s Summa business magazine. Experts estima...

All clients of PriceSmart Costa Rica who have recently purchased frozen raw tilapia should check to see if it is part of the lot #16080816172Y with expiration date: 08/07/2018 and if so, return it to the closest PriceSmart as soon as possible to receive a full reimburse, informed PriceSmart today through its local Facebook page. PriceSmart informed that they had been notified by the Costa Rica...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s Renewal Party legislator, Gonzalo Ramírez, presented last week a bill that seeks to limit the expansion of abortion in the country, reported Diario Extra, the country’s main Spanish tabloid paper. Currently, Costa Rica allows abortion only for therapeutic purposes  when a pregnancy represents a risk to a woman's life. Anyone who practices abortion under other cir...

The U.S. Senate Special on Aging found hikes as high as 5,000 percent in prices of some prescription drugs. The panel's 2016 investigation looked at four pharmaceutical companies and public hearings on sudden price spikes in decades-old medications, and the pricing imposed by drug industry entrepreneur Martin Shkreli and other healthcare industry executives. The high prices are making vital ...

As the debate in Washington, DC rages over the de-funding of Planned Parenthood, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences are gathering data about the effects on women’s lives of abortion and the consequences of being unable to access that care. The experiences of women who have an unwanted pregnancy and seek an abort...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica accepted responsibility for violating the fundamental rights of a second group of people who could not access In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) during its ban in the country, reported Elmundo.cr, a digital Costa Rican Spanish language news media. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Inter-American Court of Human Rights) made public on Tuesday that it approved of th...

Before scheduling a bikini wax, or shaving down there, consider the results of a new study. Men and women who trimmed or removed their pubic hair were nearly twice as likely to report having had a sexually transmitted infection, or STI, compared with non-groomers, researchers found after adjusting for age and number of sexual partners. The lesson, according to the study’s senior author, Dr....

A group of scientists at a California university is testing in patients with spinal cord injuries a new method of electrical stimulation to help them heal. "The spinal cord contains alternate pathways that it can use to bypass the injury and get messages from the brain to the limbs," Dr. Daniel Lu, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the di...

Since ancient times, hot springs have been a fabled source for wellness, relaxation and cleansing throughout the world.  In Costa Rica, they've not forgotten the many benefits and pure pleasures of indulging in thermal baths.  The country welcomes visitors to share and discover their own favorite spot and therapy.  From coast to coast to coast, from the Northern Plains to the Guanacaste and Centra...

The Burn Unit of the Costa Rican Children Hospital reached its maximum occupation capacity, this worries the authorities of the medical center, who reported that through November, 2016 reports a total of 378 cases of minors who have suffered a burn. “We are very worried ecause right now we are at 100% occupancy in the Burnt Child Comprehensive Care Unit, we even have the support of some pediatr...

As it is common in Costa Rica, the end of the year comes with a dangerous influenza virus; according to the Ministry of Health in the last six weeks there have been ten reported deaths caused by it. The types of influenza viruses present in the country are the A (H1N1) and A (H3N2). The presence of risk factors generates complications in those patients affected by the virus, eight out of th...

By Wendy Anders Residents of a public nursing home in Costa Rica, source Facebook. Welcome to the Latin America of contrasts. Whereas Costa Rica used to be a relatively egalitarian society, that can no longer be said, as the gap between the very rich and very poor widens each day, said researchers at the State of the Nation (Estado de la Nación) institute. A recent list of the country to...

EFE/ 43% of Mexican and 30% of Costa Rican children begin consuming alcohol before the age of 13, according to the first results of the study about the patterns of consumption of alcoholic beverages in Latin American minors. Costa Rican expert Jorge Mora Alfaro, associate investigator of the Social Sciences Faculty of Latin America (FLACSO), explained to EFE in Miami that those percentages are ...

By Wendy Anders Mandro Linton (19) and Rubén Bolaños (29) were the two most recent divers to die harvesting sea cucumbers in Nicaragua; photo courtesy of La Prensa. Two recent deaths bring the total to seven sea cucumber divers who have died in Nicaragua’s North Caribbean sea since September of this year, reported Nicaragua’s daily La Prensa last week. Meanwhile, two deaths have been rec...