The United States and Costa Rica have always been close friends regardless of the problems to sort out. In the last decade, the North American country has lent a helping hand to Costa Rica in a compassionate mission to favor indigenous communities of the country. Two years ago in 2015, a Texas health care center came to the country with the objective of providing the natives with various medical services and dental treatment.
Turrialba, a blessed village
Turrialba is a very extensive Canton in Costa Rica. It has been urbanized since 1904 but there are 4 indigenous communities in the region, where many residents need medical care as they don’t count on the financial resources to afford clinics or private assistance. The initiative of visiting this region responds to the concern of preventing diseases and the increase of the death toll caused by serious untreated diseases like heart problems, high-blood pressure and others.
What those activities consist in
Those activities are usually carried out in a period of 4 days. The foreign medical assistance often covers several communities; in this case, they went to Cabecar Aboriginal communities to provide them with check-ups and medications. The last medical activity took place nearby Grano de Oro and Alto Quetzal from April 24 to April 28 where a number of 8,000 native Costa Ricans were treated.
Basic education is also a service that American healthcare companies offer whenever they come to Costa Rica. Indigenous communities are given good training and educational information relative to health affairs. Besides, health fairs held by American hospitals offer internal medicine, dentistry services which are truthfully needed in the region. Screenings to discard more serious health problems are usually available in these fairs.
The fairs are not organized by small medical corporations but by specialists from other countries like the USA, Canada, and other developed countries. Last time, the silver lining was the participation of the popular clinic Medical Missionaries of the Divine Mercy from Texas. This staff of dentists is under the umbrella of St. Laurence Catholic Church which is based in Texas. More organizations like these are seeking to medically help thousand citizens and aboriginals.
These events are also angled to teens and young people in general. Medical assistants offer talks on the negative drug effects, and how to prevent falling in the drug-addiction spectrum. On the other side, other topics of relevance are addressed, some of which are related to the terrible diseases caused by mosquitoes such as Chikungunya, malaria, and dengue. The initiative arose out of the Chikungunya outbreak two years ago when most Latin American countries faced an impressive death toll.
Another problem that constantly persists in Costa Rican aboriginal communities is the intestinal parasite and tapeworms. This may be caused by wrong feeding habits and poor hygiene. The University of Costa has taken the initiative to offer to screen in order to detect unfriendly bacteria living in the intestines. These dangerous small agents can cause loss of appetite, weight loss and bleeding in more serious cases.
Overview
The government should take a leading role to sort out the indigenous health problems in Turrialba and other regions. Native Costa Ricans are still a numerous community that should be taken into account as they live in dissimilar conditions to the one of the rest of the Costa Rican population. More American health missionaries will continue to come to help plus the notable determination that universities and local health centers have shown to provide these people with medical assistance.