KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — An unvaccinated French boy was suspected of reintroducing measles to Costa Rica that had been free of the disease for the past five years.
Media reports said the five-year-old boy arrived at the Central American country on February 18 with his parents. His mother was allegedly not vaccinated either.
The Costa Rica Star reported the parents aged 30 and 35 as saying that other children attending their son’s school in France also had measles, when they consulted a doctor in the country about their child’s “rash”.
The French family has been quarantined at the Puntarenas Hospital.
Costa Rican health authorities have contacted those who could have been contact with the French tourists, including people on their Air France flight into the country on February 18, the hotel they stayed at in San Jose for a day, and their accommodation in Santa Teresa, Puntarenas.
No locals in Costa Rica have had measles since 2006. The last time a case of the preventable disease was imported into the country was in 2014.
