SEARCH · PubMed Health
Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Costa Rica's National Health Plan for 1971-1980 has given top priority to extension of health coverage--focusing especially on marginal rural and periurban areas. By June 1977 implementation of this plan had provided coverage for over 80 per cent of Costa Rica's scattered rural population. Community participation was being encouraged, together with an integrated approach to the problems of these marginal regions.
Costa Rica has experienced a marked reduction in infant mortality--both in the neonatal and post-neonatal components--in the last decade. The decline could be related to improvements in the pattern of fetal growth. The present report analyses the birth weight of newborns from a random sample of all births in the Republic of Costa Rica during 1970 and 1975. While the average birth weight in that period was 3100 grams, the prevalence of low birth weight neonates decreased from 9 to 7 per cent in five years. The provinces of Limon and San Jose exhibited the highest frequency of low birth weight. Women 20 to 29 years old had babies with better or optimal body weight. Age, marital status and occupation of the mother appeared correlated with birth weight. A relationship between changes in fetal growth and changes in maternal, perinatal and neonatal mortality is apparent. The present situation of birth weight places Costa Rica among the countries in transition with a clearer perspective to attain an even higher infant survival in the near future. In this regard, several measures oriented toward prevention of low birth weight are recommended.
UNLABELLED: Jingmenviruses are a group of segmented flaviviruses detected in arthropods and vertebrates that have attracted growing public health interest due to the recognition of some members as emerging human arboviral pathogens. As part of a study aimed at deciphering the virome of ticks of medical and veterinary importance in Costa Rica, we detected Jingmen tick virus (JMTV) in host-feeding Amblyomma mixtum ticks collected from horses. We assembled three complete genome segments and one partial segment from tick pools. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that JMTV from Costa Rica (JMTV Costa Rica) shares a common viral ancestor with JMTV viruses identified in ticks from the Caribbean and Latin America. Two distinct clades of Jingmenviruses were identified in the American continent, suggesting two distinct introductions: one from Europe/Asia and the other from Africa/Asia. Of note, JMTV Costa Rica falls in the same clade as viruses from Europe and Western Asia, including sequences found in humans. Our study constitutes the first detection of JMTV in Amblyomma mixtum. This tick species feeds on a wide range of hosts, including wildlife, domestic animals, and frequently parasitizes humans in Central America. Further research involving the detection of active and past infections by JMTV in humans and horses after tick bites is needed to evaluate the risk of spillover in Central America, including Costa Rica. IMPORTANCE: Jingmenviruses are flaviviruses detected in arthropods and vertebrates, reported in several countries worldwide. Some members cause disease and infections in humans; therefore, they are considered emergent human arboviruses. In Costa Rica and Central America, there is no information on tick-associated viruses or the role of ticks as putative vectors of viruses. Here, we report the first regional detection of Jingmen tick virus (JMTV) in Amblyomma mixtum ticks collected from horses. We assembled three complete and one partial viral segment from tick pools. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the JMTV detected in Costa Rica is closely related to other detections from Latin America and the Caribbean and is located in the same clade as viruses reported in humans. Additionally, we detected two separate introductions of JMTV to Latin America. To determine whether this JMTV is an emergent arbovirus locally, research on past or active infections in humans is required.
Six Costa Rican communities of different ecological settings were selected for the study of food intake in children under 5 years of age. Intake was expressed as calorie and protein adequacy. Calorie deficiency was more prevalent than protein defficiency. Practically there were no differences in adequacy by age, although 4 year-olds had a slightly greater deficiency than observed in a relatively more advanced rural region 4 years earlier. Only 13 per cent of the children selected at random were covered by Social Development and Family Allowances programs which provide for two "hot meals" per day. Calorie deficiencies of children benefiting from this program were of similar magnitude as those of children not attending the food distribution centers. These observations point to the need to carry out further investigation of the actual effectiveness and drawbacks of such programs.
A focal outbreak of highly fatal disease occurred in eastern Costa Rica in 1974. No rickettsial spotted fevers have previously been reported in Costa Rica. Nevertheless, the available evidence points to an unidentified rickettsial pathogen, probably of the spotted fever group, as the agent responsible for this outbreak.
The present discussion reveals the need to review and substitute certain criteria currently used in Costa Rica in regards to: a) nutritional recommendations; b) standards of weight; and c) classification and evaluation of the nutritional status. Such concepts will lead to the adoption of alternate criteria and standards for a better assessment of malnutrition in children. Computation of the adequacy of the diet should be made as a function of the child's weight and not of his age (Sukhatme approach). The adoption of the Weight for Height and Height for Age criteria are recommended as a substitute for Weight for Age. The normal curves of weight and height of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS, USA) would be more accurate criteria. Systematic collections of weights and heights at the national level should be made, and the data processed by simple and rapid programs to discover and assess growth deficiencies. The philosophy and orientation, scientific basis, definition of target population, infrastructure and logistics of the nutrition intervention programs of Costa Rica, should be critically revised in the light of the present report. This particularly applies to the Program of Social Development and Family Allowances.
About seven cases of unilocular hydatidosis for Echinococcus granulosus in porcine and bovine cattles have been found in Costa Rica. According to one out of the authors--Brenes, R. R.--the experimental infection of a dog (1950) after the oral administration of a fertile cyst for obtaining or developing the adult form failed to produce good results. Up to date, no report of the finding of E. granulosus in dogs or in people has been obtained. No additional case of bovine hydatidosis has been reported in Costa Rica in the last twenty years. A patient with hepatic hydatidosis who underwent surgery is presented.
This article reviews the development of social security in Costa Rica throughout the various stages of its growth starting in 1941, with special reference to the scope of the health and maternity insurance system and to disability, old-age, and life insurance. After describing the institutional setting of the social security system, the authors analyze the changes that have taken place in the training and performance of duties of nursing staff in the health services, all of which are now part of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund. Lastly, they present the two-year curriculum for training the graduate nurse, and refer to the practice of nursing in the social security system and to the duties performed by the nurse in health education, the actual care of the well and the sick, administration, and research.
In studies of hepatitis in an endemic zone in Costa Rica, 103 patients were examined for antibodies against hepatitts A by the immune-adherence assay, for hepatitis B antigen and its antibody by radioimmunoassay and passive hemagglutination, respectively, and for antibodies against cytomegalovirus by complement fixation. Twelve cases were encountered in which both Type A and Type B hepatitis could be excluded on the basis of serologic testing. In all but one of these 12 patients, cytomegalovirus infection was also excluded. The patients had not had blood transfusions and available evidence pointed to person-to-person transmission. The illness in these patients was evidently neither hepatitis A nor hepatitis B and qualifies for consideration as the still hypothetical third type of hepatitis ("C"?).
Information is given concerning the historical background of Psychiatric Services in Costa Rica. These services have been rendered since the year 1890 when a European style Asylum was opened in San José, the Capital City. The first residency program in Psichiatry begun in the early sixties with its projection into Community Psychiatry during the third year of training as well as the first actions trying to demonstrate to the administrators the usefullness and extension of Mental Health programmes for the future of the country. The residency training program evolved into a national program offering psychiatric assistance throughout the country. Seven out-patient facilities in the metropolitan area plus eleven out-patient facilities in semi-urban and rural areas were founded. To motivate the newly graduated psychiatrists to accept their designation in smaller towns and villages for a full time work was possible because of the experience that they had in Community Psychiatry during their training, there was a clear understanding when signing for the residency programme that at least for two years, they would work in the provinces. A closed relationship after their training with the National Psychiatric Hospital and the Coordination of National Psychiatric Services was kept. In the local, semi-rural communities, the Psychiatrists can hospitalize their train-in local general Hospitals and work closely with the rest of the medical staff.
In four neighborhoods of Puerto Limón, a Caribbean coastal city in a tropical rainforest area of Costa Rica, examination of 1-ml samples of night blood from 1,142 randomly selected, and 1,196 associated, persons by the Knott and filter-chamber techniques revealed microfilariae of Wuchereria bancrofti in about 3% of the 2,338 samples. The frequency of infection was higher in males (3.9%) than in females (1.9%), higher in persons of black (4.1%) than of white (1.0%) race, and highest in persons aged 10-19 (4.0%) and over 50 years (4.8%), lowest in those under 10 years (1.1%). The median microfilaria density was 3.5, the highest 45, per 20 lambdas of blood. Microfilaremia was distinctly periodic. Dissection of 663 female Culex pipiens fatigans from 42 houses of infected persons revealed filarial larvae in 25; only 1 larva was third (infective) stage. Of 64 infected persons, 11 had clinical findings suggestive of filariasis. Elephantiasis was seen in 21 others. Other forms of symptomatic filariasis without microfilaremia, though presumed to be present, were not assessed specifically.
Three species of Anastrepha are usually found independently in 9 fruits from different regions of Costa Rica. A striata was found in 5, and A. serpentina and A. obliqua in each of 3 different fruits. During the harvest season, these larvae frequently produce intestinal pseudomyiasis, especially in children.
Leishmania herreri sp. n. is described after isolation in pure culture from blood, viscera and skin of two-toed (Choloepus hoffmanni) and three-toed (Bradypus griseus) sloths from Costa Rica. Also, it was isolated from the following sandflies: Lutzomyia trapidoi, L. ylephiletor and L. shannoni. The amastigote forms were not seen in the final hosts but they were obtained in tissue culture at 33 C. Both promastigotes and amastigotes failed to infect hamsters. The new parasite is isolated frequently in culture, mixed with other hemoflagellates such as L. braziliensis, Endotrypanum sp. and Trypanosoma rangeli.
One hundred and nineteen people living in the Roosevelt county of Puerto Limón were submitted to the Knott technique for diagnosing microfilaremia bancrofti. This was the first time the technique was applied in Costa Rica. A 17.6% positivity was obtained. Some considerations on filariasis spreading to other regions of the country with the possibility of outbreaks of tropical eosinophilia or filariasis without microfilaremia are made.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The hospital records of 478 children with protein-calorie malnutrition (PCM) were reviewed. These represented all children diagnosed as malnourished during 1975 (3.6 per cent of all hospital admittances in the National Children's Hospital); 52% of the cases were infants less than 6 months of age; 28% had low birth weight, a rate much in excess of the prevalence of low birth weight in the general population of Costa Rica (7%). In general, malnourished children had been weaned early, 75% during the first month of life. A considerable number of children belonged to "malnourishing families" which have particular characteristics favorable to establishment of malnutrition in the family. Thus, 36% of their siblings had also been admitted with malnutrition at a previous date to that of this study.
Here, we report the genome assembly and annotation of two clinical isolates of Naegleria fowleri from primary amebic meningoencephalitis cases in Costa Rica in 2020 using Illumina sequencing. Each assembly comprised 37 reference-guided scaffolds, with genome sizes of approximately 28 Mbp and a GC content of 36.87%.
During the first six months of 1970 we collected 16 lots of the bivalve Anadara tuberculosa from two areas within the Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica. These were examined bacteriologically and the coliform levels found in all of them were such that they had to be graded as not satisfactory for human consumption, according to generally accepted norms. The source of these coliforms is attributed to the sewage discharge of the city of Puntarenas into its estuary.