Swine Flu is slowly surrounding and is it targeting Costa Rica?
Well, you knew it was going to happen, and it did. Personally, I would have bet on Guatemala or Nicaragua claiming the first case. But Central America’s Costa Rica confirmed its first case of swine flu in a 21-year-old Costa Rican woman who returned to San Jose from Mexico.
Hours before the case was confirmed, assembly president Francisco Antonio Pacheco asked legislators to avoid handshake and kissing greetings. Costa Rica’s general public is being asked to up their hygienic measures and avoid body contact and kissing.
Hummm … no kissing … that not going to go over well in a country whose Faux Pas is embracing, and what about the adult industry, which the country is so well-known for. Another, interesting hummm! Is Pacheco now going to require full rubber suits for its prostitutes?
According to Costa Rica’s Health Minister Maria Luisa Avila, the patient “is not in danger.” so what does this tell us? Well, I hope Costa Rica’s media is not like CBS who help increase paranoia by four reporters this week on this “threatening disease” that is sure to turn into a @&%# pandemic!
Mexico has enough problems with the Cartel wars, forcing the US State department to issue travel warnings a month ago. Now this swing flu has the US threatening to close it borders to Mexico, which will hurt the income of a few 100 thousand who legally travel to the US for work everyday, not counting the additional lost of tourist bucks.
How real is it? A friend is leaving today on a cruise ship from San Diego to Ensenada, and guess what? … the ship is not allowed to dock, so it will be the only cruise ship that has nowhere to go!
Already Mexico travel agents are being bombarded with canceling trips.
On Monday, CONCACAF shelved two events amid the swine flu outbreak — the semifinals of the under-17 championship and the second leg of the Champions League finals. The u-17 semis between Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico and the U.S. were originally scheduled Wednesday of this week in Tijuana.
Dr. Michael Anderson, interim chief medical officer of University Medical Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, said whether people are paranoia about swine flu or the common cold, they need to use basic common sense — and that doesn’t include stopping the handshake.
“There are other ways to protect yourself, like using an alcohol-based sanitizer, which I use two or three times an hour,” Anderson said. “I’ve probably shaken the hands of 10 colleagues today. I think it’s a wonderful social greeting.” The bottom line: Go ahead, shake a hand. But wash up afterward, either with soap and water or hand sanitizer, before touching your face or eating. It’s time to encourage people to shake hands to reaffirm their humanity and immunize them against loss of their emotional connections to one another,” he said.
Can you imagine every time a Costa Rican embraces, handshakes and gives a light kiss, he or she panics, runs into the bathroom to wash their hands or whips out a small bottle of hand sanitizer – this is an insult. Trust me, this is not going to happen in Costa Rica!
In spit of the world-wide panic, there are those that have common sense. The University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire announced that it would axe a six-week summer program scheduled to start in Mexico on May 26, giving the 23 enrolled students a chance to visit Costa Rica instead.
The World Health Organization raised its global pandemic/panic alert to Level 4 from Level 3 on Monday, meaning the global health organization feels the swine flu outbreak can easily be transmitted.
Last year, over 37,000 deaths were reported to the CDC just in the US for the common flu, as of this date only 200 reported deaths world-wide for the swine flu, most in Mexico.
hi, I totally agree, I think you have to be cautious, but not crazy!!!!!!
I live in Costa Rica, and as a matter of fact am nursing a cold, yet not for a second have I worried until last night when 2 of my girlfriends called crying and screaming it’s a pandemic and one of them is taking her kids to sarapiqui her weekend house for the week to hide them.
talk about extreme. I have a 5 year old, and maybe I should be worried. who knows?