Costa Rica puts brakes on popular stem cell tourism

Better known for its idyllic tropical beaches and lush cloud forests, Costa Rica's many hospitals and clinics have made medical tourism one of the fastest growing segments of its tourism sector, the motor of its economy.

They lure tens of thousands of foreigners seeking surgery, dental work, cancer treatment, cosmetic surgery, and dozens of other procedures at a fraction of their cost in the United States.

Until this week, one of those draws was stem cell treatment, using master cells gleaned from umbilical cords, fat and elsewhere.

The health ministry last month ordered the country's largest stem cell clinic to stop offering treatments, arguing there is no evidence that the treatments work or are safe.

"If (stem cell treatment's) efficiency and safety has not been proven, we don't believe it should be used," said Dr. Ileana Herrera, chief of the ministry's research council. "As a health ministry, we must always protect the human being.

The clinic's owner, Arizona entrepreneur Neil Riordan, told Reuters he closed the clinic and admitted the treatments, involving the removal and re-injection of stem cells, had not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.