Do you have to be tropicalized?

Depending on where you stay, you have to be tropicalized. However, every person who is organically and physically healthy, is also tropicalized. There can be restrictions in case of chronical heart and circulation problems, diseases of liver, kidneys or lungs and the digestive system. Also diabetes limits your tropicalization.
  This advise is written for people who live at the hot coastal areas of the Pacific and the Caribbean, since the height rises fast to the center of the country. Each 100 yards rise temperature for about 0.7 degrees Celsius. In San José and the whole central valley, climate is more like a permanent spring, which sometimes reaches the conditions of a hot European summer. You should not have any problems, if you stay there.
 

Some recommendations

Fortunately, Malaria, which is one of the most spreaded tropical diseases, does not appear in Costa Rica, why we recommend not to do a Malaria-Prophylaxis, which can cause side effects also. If you stay longer than 2 weeks, just bring a medicine to be able to cure the illness, in case of an infection. However, suitable medicine is available in all pharmacies of the country. Also other tropical diseases got really seldom because of the good hygiene conditions and an excellent health system.
If you plan on staying in the tropics for a longer time, we recommend to get protection against Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B by the new medication called TWINRIX.
Also the common injections against Tetanus and Polio should be up to date, because in tropical climate, viruses and bacterias grow rapidly and are more aggressive than at home.

If you watch some important instructions, you have done much to prevent diseases:

• always wear light clothes in darkness, which covers the whole body
• use insect repellent like for example Autan
• sleep under a mosquito web (put under mattress)
• burn insect coils, if there are many

Amebasis

Amebas are single cell, microscopic organs, which produce a clinical picture with slimy diarrhea and strong body cramps. Diarrhea is often bloody. The mucous membrane of the colon is infected and abscesses can develop. First focus of infection is food and drink water, but also flies can transfer the amebas to the food. An amebas liver abscess is the most dangerous complication of this disease. The pathogenes can be found in the stool as well as by a blood test. A doctor should watch the treatment.
 

The Leishmaniosis

The pathogenes of the leishmaniosis, a local skin infection, is Leishmania Tropica.
It gets transferred to humans by the sand fly. The desease produces knots and abscesses on the skin. It can be proved by skin tests. Treatment is difficult and needs a long time. In most cases, the disease even heals without treatment within one year by leaving scarfs. One of my friends brought this illness as a souvenier from Costa Rica. Several doctors in Germany could not identify the disease. Only with the help of the tropical institute, the right diagnosis was done and the illness could be healed within 2 weeks. However, the tropical institute said that catching this illness during a vacation was like winning some millions in the lottery, so panic is absolutely unnecessary.
 

Leprosy

Leprosy spread by the leprosy bacterias. It is a chronical illness of the skin, the nerves and the mucous membranes of the nose. The disease covers country areas of the ropics but also parts of southern Europe.
It gets transfered by long tight contact through nose secretion. First signs of the illness appear after months or even years. A therapy is difficult. An injection is being tested.
 

Chagas (Sleeping Sickness)

Gets transfered by the bug Triatoma and is caused by Trypanosomes. The incubation period is about 14 days. After that, people get fever and swolen lymph nodes. A therapy takes a long time and an injection is getting tested now.
 

Malaria

The kind of Malaria that occurred in the last years in Costa Rica, was the Malaria Tertiana, which most times progresses benign. It most time starts with long shivering fit. Body temperature increases to about 104 Fahrenheit and decreases under dripping sweat to normal temperature. After that, a fever rhythm of 48 hours developes. The   pathogenes, called Plasmodium Vivax get transferred by the Anopheles fly, known as a kind of mosquito. The incubation period is about 2 weeks.
 

Yellow fever

This disease does also not exist in Costa Rica, but gets explained, since it is a serious disease which could be brought into the country anytime from the other latin american countries. The virus gets transferred by mosquitos. The incubation period is about 3 to 5 days. The disease can progress almost uncovered, but also strong and deadly. If a person has passed an infection, they are protected for the rest of the life. There is an injection that protects for 10 years and only authorized places are allowed to give them.
 

Bilharziosis

The panthogenes of this disease are wurms, the so called couple-angle. Snails, which live in the water, are responsible for the existance of this illness. They sort out larvas, which swim in the water and are able to drill themselves through human skin. After entering, they produce itching infections on the skin. If they are in the blood circulation of a human, they go to the veins of the liver, where they develope to sexual maturity. After that, they move in pairs to other organs (area of bladder or bowell) to place their eggs. Especially standing water is the hotbed of the snails, but also rivers and lagunes with sweet water. The illness gets proven by a test of blood, urine or stool and can be healed with different medicine. The disease does not exist in Costa Rica this moment, but got explained, since it could appear any time.