A five-year-old French unvaccinated "reintroduces measles to Costa Rica"

An unvaccinated French schoolboy is suspected of reintroducing measles in Costa Rica – five years after the country's eradication of the disease.

A five-year-old, he entered the Central American nation earlier this month with his family and stayed at hotels in San Jose and Santa Teresa during the holidays.

But the boy and his parents, aged 30 and 35, were "placed in isolation" at the Puntarenas hospital after asking a private doctor to examine his "rash".

His mother, who is also unvaccinated, reportedly revealed that other children in her son's school had already contracted the disease.

An unvaccinated French schoolboy is suspected of reintroducing measles in Costa Rica five years after the eradication of the disease (photo of the record)

Research is underway to search for people with whom he could have contacted, including hotels, on the flight of Air France February 18 and in his country, announced health officials.

The country has not reported measles cases in the country since 2006 and the last imported case goes back five years, according to the Costa Rica Star.

Symptoms of the highly infectious disease include high fever, cough, and rash. But complications can lead to pneumonia and blindness.

More than 7,000 cases have been reported in the Americas in 2018.

According to the World Health Organization, measles vaccine has prevented more than 21 million deaths worldwide between 2000 and 2017.

The vast majority of children in developed countries are protected against the virus by the combined measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine.

In recent years, however, there has been a growing movement against vaccination.

Last year, an official report claimed that measles cases worldwide were 30% higher in 2017 than the year before.

Health officials have blamed the outbreak of the potentially fatal infection for the spread of misinformation by anti-vaxxers.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also highlighted the collapse of health systems and complacency at this disturbing trend.

The five-year-old entered the Central American nation earlier this month with his family and stayed in the San Jose and Santa Teresa hotels during the holidays (photo of file).

Several countries – including Germany, Russia and Venezuela – have seen their measles elimination certificate removed in the past 12 months, it was announced in November.

A country loses its measles elimination status when "the same type of virus has been circulating for more than 12 consecutive months".

European health leaders said last year that the United Kingdom had "eliminated" measles, which means that the country is no longer native to the country.

However, the use of both doses now approaches 87% in England, which is below the 95% target needed to stop the spread of measles.

In Europe, experts attributed the problem in part to complacency and misinformation about a vaccine that has proven to be both effective and safe.

At the time, Martin Friede, director of immunization, vaccines and biologics at WHO, told reporters that "we are regressing" in the fight against measles.

He added that "the supposed experts accusing the vaccine without any evidence" have had an impact on the decisions of the parents.

He cited unsubstantiated claims linking measles vaccine to autism, which were partly disseminated on social media by members of the so-called "anti-vax" movement.

However, cases have also seen a sharp rise in Latin America, partly because of "the collapse of the health system in Venezuela," also said the head of the Alliance for Immunization, Gavi, Seth Berkley in a statement.

A crippling political and economic crisis in Venezuela has led to mbadive inflation as hospitals struggle to conserve their stocks.

Mr Friede added that it was disturbing to note that cases were occurring in countries where no measles transmission had been reported "for many years".

WHO, which has followed 17 years of data for the new report alongside the CDC, noted that the global fight against measles has yielded impressive results in this century.

In 2000, more than 850,000 cases were reported worldwide, compared to 173,000 last year.

These advances have made recent setbacks even more frustrating, said Ann Lindstrand, WHO immunization expert.

"We have a safe and effective vaccine," she told reporters. "It's not rocket science, we know what to do."

A breakdown of the regions shows that measles cases jumped 458% in Europe and 100% in Africa in the last year.

Smaller increases were recorded in North and South America, while the number of cases decreased by 82% in the Western Pacific region.

According to WHO guidelines, the prevention of measles outbreaks requires 95% coverage of the first dose of the vaccine.

Global coverage has stagnated at 85% for several years, but this figure is lower in the poorer regions like Africa, with a coverage rate of 70% in 2017.

Slowing rates could result from the theory of gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield in 1995 that the MMR vaccine is linked to intestinal disease and autism.

His controversial study, published in The Lancet, has since been retracted and his views widely discredited.

Measles is a highly contagious disease that can cause severe diarrhea, pneumonia and vision loss and can be fatal in some cases.