Hurricane Matthew left Haiti with a new outbreak of cholera cases and at least 20 people have died due to the disease. This situation alarmed many countries and Costa Rica is not the exception.
The World Health Organization (WHO) urged countries in the region to take extreme measures to prevent this disease from affecting more countries.
Daniel Salas, doctor from Health Surveillance at the Ministry of Health, reported that days ago, Costa Rica started to update the warning protocols established since 2010.
According to the official, the goal is to verify the installed capacity of Costa Rica, in case it has to deal with emergencies. In addition, training would be conducted in public and private health centers.
What is cholera?
It is a serious intestinal infection caused by consuming food or water contaminated with Vibrio cholerae bacterium.
It causes constant diarrhea that can lead to dehydration in a few hours; patient may enter a state of shock, which will lower the pressure and may even jeopardize their life,
declared Salas.
It has a short period of encubation that goes from 1 to 5 days.
Cholera symptoms can range from mild to severe, and they may include:
-Diarrhea described with a strong fishy odor.
-abdominal cramps.
-Dry mouth and skin.
-excessive thirst.
-Glassy or sunken eyes.
-No tears.
-Unusual exhaustation.
-little urine.
-Sickness.
-Rapid pulse (heart rate).
Be safe:
To correctly wash your hands, to consume drinking water and to properly wash your food are some of the best practices to to keep this disease at bay.
Handwashing:
-Moisten hands and forearms with clean water.
-Lather up a good lather.
-Clean under your nails.
-Scrub between fingers and each of these.
-Rub your hands in the stream.
-Preferably dry your hands with paper towel.
Food washing:
-Wash piece by piece, fruits and vegetables using a brush, soap and water. In the case of lettuce leaves, wash one by one and cilantro, parsley and this kind of food, wash them in small bunches.
-Food should be thoroughly rinsed to remove any soap.
-In a container with 10 liters of water and a disinfectant solution with 15 drops of bleach per liter, fruits and vegetables are dipped. Allow it to stand for 30 minutes, rinse and allow to dry.
-Now keep it in clean containers and refrigerate.
Costa Rica haven’t registered a case of cholera since 1997.