María Luisa Ávila Agüero (born 30 January 1961) is a Costa Rican pediatric infectious disease specialist who was during the administrations of

Óscar Arias Sánchez Oscar or Oskar is a masculine given name of English and Irish origin. Etymology The name is derived from two elements in Irish: the first, ''os'', means "deer"; the second element, ''car'', means "loving" or "friend", thus "deer-loving one" or "f ...

(2006–2010) and

Laura Chinchilla Miranda Laura Chinchilla Miranda (; born 28 March 1959) is a Costa Rican political scientist and politician who served as President of Costa Rica from 2010 to 2014. She was one of Óscar Arias Sánchez's two Vice-Presidents and his administration's ...

(2010–2014).

Biography

The daughter of Claudio Ávila Quirós and Evelia Agüero Garro, María Luisa Ávila Agüero studied at the Escuela República de Paraguay and the Colegio Anastasio Alfaro. She graduated as a

pediatrician Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many of their youth ...

from the

University of Costa Rica The University of Costa Rica (Spanish: ''Universidad de Costa Rica,'' abbreviated UCR) is a public university in the Republic of Costa Rica, in Central America. Its main campus, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, is located in San Pedro Mo ...

and specialized in

infectious disease An infection is the invasion of tissue (biology), tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host (biology), host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmis ...

. She became the Chief of Infectious Disease at the National Children's Hospital. In 2006, President Óscar Arias Sánchez appointed her Minister of Public Health, and in the following administration, Laura Chinchilla Miranda retained her in the post. She was a member of the research committee at the

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern or UTSW) is a public academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 23,000 employees, more than 3,000 full-time faculty, and nearly 4 million outpatient ...

in Dallas from 1998 to 2002.

Arias Sánchez administration

Through the publication of Executive Decree No. 34510-S "Organic Regulation of the Ministry of Health", a new institutional structure and development of the organizational model was implemented. In July 2008, through the Executive Decree, the Costa Rica Solid Waste Plan was made official. In 2009, the country achieved the lowest

infant mortality Infant mortality is the death of an infant before the infant's first birthday. The occurrence of infant mortality in a population can be described by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the number of deaths of infants under one year of age ...

rate in its history, ranking third in Latin America, behind only

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. The basic

vaccination Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating ...

scheme for the entire population was extended, through the incorporation of four new vaccines for children:

chickenpox Chickenpox, also known as varicella ( ), is a highly contagious disease caused by varicella zoster virus (VZV), a member of the herpesvirus family. The disease results in a characteristic skin rash that forms small, itchy blisters, which ...

pneumococcus ''Streptococcus pneumoniae'', or pneumococcus, is a Gram-positive, spherical bacteria, alpha-hemolytic member of the genus ''Streptococcus''. ''S. pneumoniae'' cells are usually found in pairs (diplococci) and do not form spores and are non mo ...

pertussis Whooping cough ( or ), also known as pertussis or the 100-day cough, is a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable bacterial disease. Initial symptoms are usually similar to those of the common cold with a runny nose, fever, and mild cough, bu ...

, and

rotavirus Rotaviruses are the most common cause of diarrhea, diarrhoeal disease among infants and young children. Nearly every child in the world is infected with a rotavirus at least once by the age of five. Immunity (medical), Immunity develops with ...

. In April 2010, Law 8809 was passed, creating the and providing it with an organizational and managerial structure, as well as resources to be able to advance the coverage of comprehensive care for the country's children. Ávila resumed the program of

vector-borne disease In epidemiology, a disease vector is any living agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen such as a parasite or microbe, to another living organism. Agents regarded as vectors are mostly blood-sucking ( hematophagous) arthropods such ...

control, giving special emphasis to the fight against

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

, which had been abandoned by previous administrations and left in the hands of local levels of the Ministry of Health. Thanks to Dr. Ávila's management, Matina's Area of Health team was able to obtain support to control the increasing incidence of malaria which had been taking place in that canton of

Limón Limón (), also known as Puerto Limón, is the capital city of both the province and canton of the same name. One of Costa Rica's seven "middle cities" (i.e., main cities outside of San José's Greater Metropolitan Area), Limón has a populat ...

since the early 2000s, and with that, avoid its spread to the rest of the country's low areas. At the end of the administration in 2010, Costa Rica reported its lowest incidence of

dengue fever Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease caused by dengue virus, prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas. Asymptomatic infections are uncommon, mild cases happen frequently; if symptoms appear, they typically begin 3 to 14 days after i ...

in nine years, and mortality from hemorrhagic dengue remained at 0. At the end of July 2009, at the Ministry's request, the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

canceled the pilgrimage of the faithful to the city of Cartago for the August 2 festival at the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels, due to the H1N1 flu pandemic. In February 2010, the Ministry's audit questioned a series of agreements and contracts that it had made with the

(UCR) to implement an organizational development process at the institution, for a sum of close to 900 million colones (approximately US$1.5 million). On 20 March 2010, Ávila was part of a group of five ministers – together with Leonardo Garnier (Education), (Planning), Marco Vinicio Ruiz (Foreign Trade), and

María Elena Carballo María Elena Carballo (born 1958) is a Costa Rican politician. She was the Minister of Youth and Culture in Costa Rica María Elena Carballo, Flora Ovares, Margarita Rojas, Carlos Santander: La casa paterna. Escritura y nación en Costa Rica, S ...

– to ask President Arias Sánchez to promote Bill 16.390 on " civil unions between people of the same sex".

Chinchilla Miranda administration

At the beginning of the Chinchilla Miranda administration, due to a lack of foresight and administrative problems at the Ministry of Public Health, a total of 135,000 children and mothers in poverty did not receive milk normally provided by the government. This caused Ávila to be called to appear before the Legislative Assembly, where some confrontations took place. In June 2010, members of the

PAC Pac or PAC may refer to: Aviation * IATA code PAC Albrook "Marcos A. Gelabert" International Airport in Panama City, Panama * Pacific Aerospace Corporation, New Zealand, manufacturer of aircraft: ** PAC 750XL ** PAC Cresco ** PAC CT/4 ** PA ...

and PUSC filed a motion of censure against the Minister of Public Health for friction created after she ordered the closure of 40 offices in the Legislative Assembly's facilities that did not meet appropriate conditions. María Luisa Ávila presented her resignation from the Ministry of Public Health in July 2011 for differences with President Laura Chinchilla on the intervention process to seek solutions to various problems in the

Department of Social Security A ministry of social security or department of social security is a government entity responsible for social security affairs. It may be a ministry office, a department, or, as in the United States, a nominally independent agency. Notable ones ar ...

. The resignation became effective on September 1.

Biography

Arias Sánchez administration

Chinchilla Miranda administration

See also

References

Further reading