News Costa Rica:
Costa Rica "Probable" Flu Cases Increases To Eight

The number of "probable" cases of the A/H1N1 flu or swine flu as it is more commonly referred to, has reached eight in Costa Rica. Two are presently in the hospital: a 53 year old man, with pneumonia complications and a 12 year old girl with asthma at the Children's Hospital. The other six are in good health and are under quarantine at home.

So far only one case has been confirmed by analysis of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, while the "probables" are test results by the Instituto Costarricense de Investigación y Enseñanza en Nutrición y Salud (INCIENSA) and are waiting CDC confirmation.

INCIENSA officials say they are expecting that the test kit for the a/H1N1 flu virus will arrive today (Tuesday) and that will speed up the testing results, as it eliminates the need for the CDC report.

The latest report by the ministerio de Salud is 424 "suspected" cases have looked into since April 24, of which 369 have been discarded.

The Salud report indicates that women are in the majority of the cases (214 cases) and that almost 50% of the cases involved those between the ages of 20 and 50.

For the time being, Salud officials report that the infection is directly related to those individuals who have visited or have been in contact with someone who has visited Mexico.

Salud officials are recommending no travel to Mexico, the US and Canada, unless it is absolutely necessary and say they're in tune with Juan Santamaria (San Jose) airport and airlines to better screen entry into the Costa Rica.

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