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WILLEMSTAD, CURACAO (AP) – The Curaçao authorities announced Saturday that 17 crew members and 11 passengers were to remain aboard a quarantined vessel belonging to the Church of Scientology, following of a confirmed case of measles.
Dr. Izzy Gerstenbluth said the group was to remain aboard the Freewinds vessel, a length of 440 meters, until May 13, as it still risks contracting measles after a limb of the crew contracted the disease.
He said other crew members and passengers, 318 people, are free to leave the ship.
"They are no longer a threat to anyone and they can not be sick anymore," he said.
The church said in a statement that the health authorities of Curaçao had recognized the strict protocol of isolation of the Freewinds, which limited the disease to a single case and prevented it from spreading to other people. ;other. According to the church's website, the ship is the home of a "religious retreat providing the most advanced spiritual advice".
The ship had already been quarantined in St. Lucia and arrived at her home port of Curaçao a week ago. The authorities then took 277 blood samples from those who had no proof of vaccination and sent them to the Netherlands.
Gerstenbluth said that the female member of the crew who had been infected was in Europe and arrived on April 17 in Curacao with cold symptoms. Authorities said she had been screened for measles, but that she had already left for St. Lucia at the time of the results. The Curaçao authorities then alerted the government of Saint Lucia.
Symptoms include runny nose, fever and a rash with red spots. Most people get better, but measles can cause pneumonia, swelling of the brain and even death in some cases.
More than 700 people in 22 US states have caught measles this year, federal officials claiming the upsurge in their effects is due to misinformation about vaccines.
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