A Scientology cruise ship faces a renewed quarantine at its Curacao port of attachment

(Reuters) – A Scientology cruise ship quarantined by the Caribbean nation of Saint Lucia for measles is scheduled to arrive Saturday at its home port on the island of Curaçao, where it will be confronted with similar restrictions, according to a senior health official told me.

A team of health officers in Curacao is planning to board the ship to determine who on board could have been exposed to a member of the crew diagnosed with measles and on board who has already been vaccinated against the very contagious disease, said the official.

Dr. Izzy Gerstenbluth, Chief Epidemiologist of the Institute for Biomedical and Health Research, Curaçao, said that passengers and crew could prove they had already been vaccinated or had already had measles would probably be free to disembark and operate.

Others would probably be prevented from leaving the ship during the incubation period – the time during which they could potentially pass the disease on to others, he told Reuters by phone.

"What we do not want is that the disease spreads further," said Gerstenbluth. "There is no other way than … to allow no one to infect the ship."

Incubation may last up to 21 days after exposure, with infected individuals being the most contagious four days before the onset of the measles rash – when the person has symptoms resembling those of colds – at four days after the eruption.

Gerstenbluth said that the infected crew member had traveled to Europe and joined the ship on April 17, and reported feeling ill on April 22. He remained aboard the ship after a blood sample taken several days later returned positive for measles. was already on his way to St. Lucia.

Health authorities quarantined the ship after arriving on April 30, forbidding anyone to disembark. Saint Lucia also reportedly provided 100 doses of measles vaccine to the ship before leaving for Curaçao on Thursday.

It is believed that a total of 318 passengers and crew members are aboard the vessel, a Panamanian-flagged cruise liner identified by maritime surveillance records as being the VMS Freewinds, ship's name. 300 meters owned and operated by the Church of Scientology.

The church, on its website, describes Freewinds as a "floating religious retreat that provides the most advanced level of spiritual counseling in the religion of Scientology."

The boat is based in Curacao, an island in the Netherlands Antilles in northern Venezuela and is now an autonomous country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Scientology officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Although the crew member infected with measles has been supposedly confined to her cabin since diagnosis, the relatively confined interior of a cruise ship and the highly transmissible nature of the virus – it can remain in a confined space for two hours – increase the risk of exposure to the virus. others who lack immunity, Gerstenbluth said.

Quarantine comes amid a global resurgence of measles, blamed by public health officials for reducing inoculation rates in some populations due to misinformation about the safety of the vaccine .

In the United States, the number of measles cases in recent months has risen to more than 700 this week, a record for 25 years. Last month, health authorities in Los Angeles ordered the quarantine of two university campuses after each of them reported at least one confirmed case.