Dengue fever cases increasing in Costa Rica

A total of 8,480 people have been affected by dengue fever in Costa Rica, marking a year-on-year increase of 36 percent, showed an official report released Monday. The report from the Costa Rican Health Ministry said that the percentage represented an increase of 2,230 cases more than the same period in 2011. Among all the cases so far, only nine people were affected by hemorrhagic dengue fever, which is a more serious and sometimes mortal type of dengue, the report added. According to the report, the western province of Limon, on the Caribbean coast, is the worst-hit district, which accounted for half of the total cases. The Pacific Central region is the second most affected with a total of 1,846 cases, while the Northern Region has 1,316 cases. The country's authorities have urged people to eliminate the possible sources of reproduction of the Aedes aegypti, which can transmit the disease.