A surveillance study of cancer incidence and mortality among young adults in Costa Rica.

Background: There has been an increase in certain cancers among young adults (YA) aged 20-39, particularly in Latin America. This is the first study to examine cancer incidence and mortality in YA in Costa Rica, focusing on sex-specific patterns.

Methods: Invasive cancer cases (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) in YA from 2006 to 2015 were obtained from the Costa Rican National Registry of Tumors.

Cohort profile: evaluation of immune response and household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Costa Rica: the RESPIRA study.

Purpose: The RESPIRA cohort aims to describe the nature, magnitude, time course and efficacy of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination, population prevalence, and household transmission of COVID-19.

Participants: From November 2020, we selected age-stratified random samples of COVID-19 cases from Costa Rica confirmed by PCR. For each case, two population-based controls, matched on age, sex and census tract were recruited, supplemented with hospitalised cases and household contacts.

Behavioral factors and SARS-CoV-2 transmission heterogeneity within a household cohort in Costa Rica.

Introduction: Variability in household secondary attack rates and transmission risks factors of SARS-CoV-2 remain poorly understood.

Methods: We conducted a household transmission study of SARS-CoV-2 in Costa Rica, with SARS-CoV-2 index cases selected from a larger prospective cohort study and their household contacts were enrolled. A total of 719 household contacts of 304 household index cases were enrolled from November 21, 2020, through July 31, 2021.

Trends in incidence rates of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas overall and by potential relatedness to human papillomavirus, Costa Rica 2006 to 2015.

In Costa Rica (CR), only one report on head and neck cancer (HNC) incidence trends (1985-2007) has been published and no investigations on the epidemiology of potentially human papillomavirus (HPV)-related and HPV-unrelated HNCs have been done. We examined the age-standardized incidence rates (IRs) and trends of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) and compared incidence trends of potentially HPV-related and HPV-unrelated HNSCCs. We obtained all available HNC cases for the period 2006-2015 from the Costa Rican National Cancer Registry of Tumors and the population estimates from the Costa Rican National Institute of Statistics and Census.

Behavioral factors and SARS-CoV-2 transmission heterogeneity within a household cohort in Costa Rica.

Variability in household secondary attack rates (SAR) and transmission risks factors of SARS-CoV-2 remain poorly understood. To characterize SARS-CoV-2 transmission in a household setting, we conducted a household serologic study of SARS-CoV-2 in Costa Rica, with SARS-CoV-2 index cases selected from a larger prospective cohort study and their household contacts were enrolled. A total of 719 household contacts of 304 household index cases were enrolled from November 21, 2020, through July 31, 2021.

Manipulation of insulin signaling phenocopies evolution of a host-associated polyphenism.

Plasticity, the capacity of an organism to respond to its environment, is thought to evolve through changes in development altering the integration of environmental cues. In polyphenism, a discontinuous plastic response produces two or more phenotypic morphs. Here we describe evolutionary change in wing polyphenism and its underlying developmental regulation in natural populations of the red-shouldered soapberry bug, Jadera haematoloma (Insecta: Hemiptera: Rhopalidae) that have adapted to a novel host plant.

In vitro antimalarial activity of extracts of some plants from a biological reserve in Costa Rica.

Treatment with the usual antimalarial drugs, have induced parasite resistance, reinforcing the need to finding natural antimalarial components that would be found on plants from the forest. Therefore, we decided to look for these components in Costa Rican plants from a protected forest area. Fresh and dry extracts of roots, bark, leaves, flowers and fruits of 25 plants from a biological reserve in Costa Rica, Reserva Biol6gica Alberto Manuel Brenes (REBAMB), were studied in vitro for the presence of substances with antimalarial activity.

[Intestinal parasites in white-faced capuchin monkeys Cebus capucinus (Primates: Cebidae) inhabiting a protected area in the Limón province of Northeastern Costa Rica].

Deforestation of tropical forests is threatening monkey biodiversity and their health status, dependent of an ecologically undisturbed area. To asses this relationship, we analyzed parasite occurrence in their intestines. The study was conducted at the Estación Biológica La Suerte (EBLS), Limón, Costa Rica.