San José, Costa Rica. January, 2016.

Annual vaccination, both for adults and children, is part of a national recommendation from our health authorities and we must follow it for our own benefit. In the same way as with education campaigns, this habit should be permanent. We should always wash our hands with soap and water, and comply at all times with the recommendations of protection and care, not only when there is a warning of a possible epidemic.

According to Dr. Jorge Cortés Rodríguez, Medical Director of the Clínica Bíblica Hospital, “prevention is part of an education campaign that should be permanent, since in addition to being oriented to fight the virus as in this case, influenza, it helps us with the prevention and care of a large variety of medical conditions.”

The vaccines against the flu are traditionally applied in October but, according to the coverage of epidemics of the different strains of this virus, the Epidemiological Surveillance Department of the Ministry of Health, established, since 2015, that they should be applied in the month of May.

This is not the only annual vaccine that we should have since, just as there are various vaccines for the child with their dosage and intervals, the same thing happens for adults (pneumonia, tetanus, hepatitis, yellow fever etc.).

Epidemics?

Before declaring that H1N1 is an epidemic, the country´s health services network monitors within the territory the diseases defined as subject to “epidemiological surveillance”. This report is sent to a central module (in our country INCIENSA) that compares the number of cases with the historical median of these. This implies the production of an indicator of positive cases and their variation (greater or lower) with previous numbers.

According to this measurement, there can be areas or regions that can be considered with an abnormal behavior. This together with the characteristics of the disease, its seriousness and capability of contagion are taken into account in order to make the declaration or not of emergency.

What is an emergency?

An emergency is a condition that endangers life, therefore it is necessary to resort to a medical assessment if the usual and customary symptoms of a cold worsen in unusual ranges or if it is a person belonging to groups at risk of developing problems or requiring special care such as the elderly, people with chronic diseases, asthmatics, diabetics, pregnant women, children under five, among others.

In order to obtain further information or to request an appointment in any of the medical specialties with the best doctors of Costa Rica, please contact the private hospital Clínica Bíblica at telephone number 2522-1000, at email citas@clinicabiblica.com or vía chat on the website www.clinicabiblica.com