The authorities of Costa Rica and Nicaragua are fine-tuning joint actions against malaria in the border area, where outbreaks of the disease have been registered in recent months, the Costa Rican Ministry of Health reported Monday.
Among the actions that will be carried out are plans to deal with outbreaks, the exchange of good practices, the request to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for equipment and supplies for the evaluation of insecticide resistance surveillance.
The parties also agreed that for spraying or reactive search actions as response actions, the local officials undertake to notify their counterpart of the schedule of activities.
The Costa Rican Ministry of Health indicated that last week there was a meeting with its Nicaraguan counterpart and PAHO staff to address the situation and advance the implementation of joint cross-border interventions for the elimination of malaria.
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The malaria outbreak has been detected this year in the community known as La Trocha, where the health authorities of Costa Rica and Nicaragua are carrying out bilateral work to establish prevention and control strategies for this disease that can be deadly and is caused by parasites. They are transmitted to humans through the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes.
Last September, the authorities reported the detection of 15 cases in the area.
“The country continues to make important efforts to eliminate the transmission of the disease by 2025; These efforts consist of concrete actions to reduce the time in the detection and diagnosis of cases from the onset of symptoms, initiation of correct and timely treatment, as well as investigation, reactive search for cases, follow-up and vectorial control with the aim of avoiding the spread of the disease”, detailed the Costa Rican Ministry of Health.
