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My wife and I are coming to CR in December for two weeks to do some preliminary research as to possibility where to live. Through my readings, they mention the following diseases and cures. I would appreciate if someone that is a resident of CR respond as to the severity and possibility of contracting these diseases:
1. Chagas’ Diease – Transmitted by triatomine insects. Prevention is bed netting and insecticide.
2. Dengue Fever(Breakbone Fever)- Transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. Prevention is bed netting.
3. Hepatitis A – Transmitted by congestion of contaminated water,food, or ice. A vaccine is available.
4. Leishmaniasis – Transmitted by sandflies. Prevention is a fine mesh bed netting.
5.Malaria – Transmitted by mosquitoes. Prevention is dosage of Chloroquine.
6. Typhoid – Transmitted by ingestion of food and water contaminated by a species of Samonella. A vaccine is available.We currently live in Clearwater, Florida so I am accustomed to living with mosquitoes. However, I have never received a vaccine to prevent a diease transmitted by them.
Please advise how I should prepare for this trip. Does every Tico bathe in insect repellant spray and sleep under a bed netting. Are all the Ticos vaccinated for preventable diseases.
Thank You for your advise,
Manny
I am NOT a Doctor but from studying Costa Rica for the past 7 years, it seems to me that the only disease amongst that list that occurs with any frequency would be dengue fever and you can see more about that at
I have never had a vaccination to live here and do not take any medication to protect myself from any of the diseases mentioned above (which might be why I’m so bloody healthy) and PLEASE NOTE that most of those are tropical diseases that occur in only a few areas of Costa Rica and I can count the number of mosquito bites I’ve suffered in 7 years on two hands
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comI have looked into this as well and agree with Scott only denque is something you must take some precautions for. I am like Scott rarely am bitten by mosquitoes, on the other hand if there is one within a 100 miles of where we are my girlfriend will get bitten, my daughter has the same problem. Good bug spray and netting at night if you are in an area with a lot of mosquitoes and appropriate dress at night, although the ones that transmit dengue like to bite you during the day. I have known two people that have had dengue in C.R. one a tourist in my hotel and the other the owner of the hotel(she had gotten it 10 years prior). Also the bug has to bite an infected person and then bite you to infect you, so in less congested areas you may be safer? Not all of them are carriers of the virus.
You forgot cholera.
While dengue is obviously on the rise in CR, so is West Nile Virus in the US. Use bug spray, but don’t obsess.
The most likely areas which may expose you to Malaria and Dengue are in the lowlands, particularly on the banana plantations and in the poorest rural communities. My understanding is that dengue is not serious unless you contract it a second time, when it becomes hemorrhagic dengue.
Unless you stay in a mud hut, I wouldn’t worry too much about Chagas. That’s about the only time I would use netting.
I’ve slept outside in the middle of the jungle on the Pacuare River without getting a single mosquito bite. Northern Wisconsin is MUCH worse than anywhere I’ve been in CR.
There are active campaigns against dengue in CR, including education to eradicate standing water and fogging to kill the eggs. There is also excellent medical care in CR, and outstanding water quality. These are all conditions which mitigate the potential for the spread of disease.
I remember 20 years ago or so when someone contracted cholera in South America and flew back to CR before getting sick. There were actually news articles, complete with maps, following the course of her offending turd down the river from her house. There was no outbreak.
Yes, many rivers are open sewers in CR, as well as in most underdeveloped and developing countries, but then again so is Lake Michigan after a heavy rain.
You all do raise some good questions regarding tropical diseases and how far to take your regime of prevention prior to leaving home.
When I lived on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, south of Limon, it was common for someone you knew at one time or another to have come down with a case of dengue. You are correct that there are two types of dengue, the more rare form being the hemmorhagic, which is of course, much more serious but less prevalent. The ‘normal’ dengue causes flu-like symptoms and a general malaise, but that’s all. No way to prevent either, except for bug repellant. I’m told the dengue-carrying mosquito is a day-biter, with a white tip at the end of it’s stinger. The malaria carrying mosquito attacks at dawn and dusk.
Because I lived in the region with my two small children, and ONLY because my children were with me, we erred on the safe side and took both the Typhoid and Hep A innoculations at the local health department before leaving the States. This was, again, an extreme precaution, something I never did before when traveling to southern Costa Rica alone. I also had my children regularly take the malaria prophalaxis, again, the result of an overprotective single mom moving to the fringes of the jungle . . . unless you plan to spend a lot of time deep in the rainforest, I would say take your chances and forego both the cost and the aggrevation of having the Rx filled.
I do know of an American man who contracted cutenous leishmaniasis, which is a potentially fatal (if non-treated) and very expensive (if treated) nasty little problem. Common, again, to the more humid tropical regions of Costa Rica and probably close to unheard of in the more touristy Pacific coast resort areas. This particular gentleman did spend some time hiking through the rainforest and I suspect that is where he contracted it.
As a ‘mom’ raising my children in the less-traveled region of southern Caribbean Costa Rica, sure, there were concerns. But it all needs to be put into perspective. A friend once told me (and this is a bit extreme) that she would much rather be bitten by a Terciopelo than to die in a fiery crash on the San Diego freeway.
I’ll take the fiery crash. Terciopelos – now those scare me! A giant snake with a mane! Over 50% of the deaths due to snake bites in CR are attributed to this serpent. It’s also referred to as Fer-De-Lance. I don’t know what they call it in English.
Still, snake bites are not at all common in the more traveled areas. I’ve never seen one in the wild. While building my house the workers did kill a green tree snake. They’re poisonous, but shy, and they keep the mouse population down.
A few years ago, I cane across a large terciopelo whilst walking my dog in Trejos Montealegre in Escazu
It was sunning itself on the sand surrounding a giant anthill.
You could see a photograph of it as it starts to slide down into the hole at:
Scott
I had a neighbor who was unlucky enough to have them in his yard all the time; I believe he said they’ve spotted, I kid you not, thirty or so in the two years they have lived in the house. But then, he lived on the rainforest side of the highway backing up to dense forest; while I happily lived on the beach side. The snakes were generally found by the chapear underneath some leaves. One day, a little neighborhood child yelled out, ‘Nanci, Venga!’ She ran out to find a terciopelo curled up near the spicket the children used to wash up before school . . . Here’s another frightening story, and thank goodness this was not me because I truly would have had a heart attack or something, this same neighbor was showering one day, and accidentally knocked a terciopelo down with the loofah where it landed at his feet. Ughh.
As for me, the only snakes I saw while we lived in PV were in the jars kept upon the shelf near the entrance the local clinic in Hone Creek.
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