The cruise ship Church of Scientology will be quarantined after confirmation of measles from a crew member

The authorities of the island of Curaçao, in the Netherlands Caribbean, have announced the quarantine of a vessel carrying 300 people, after confirmation that a member of the crew is suffering from measles .

Freewinds, a 300-meter vessel owned by the Church of Scientology, is expected to dock early Saturday.

Health officials have announced that they will board the ship upon arrival and determine who has been vaccinated against measles or who has already had the virus.

They say that the evidence will be needed, and that those who do not comply will be immediately vaccinated, regardless of their religious views.

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

It is normally docked in Curacao when it is not used, but church officials have not sent back any message for comment.

Freewinds, a 200-meter vessel owned by the Church of Scientology, will be quarantined upon arrival in Curacao on Saturday.

The detained pbadengers were photographed on the deck of the ship on this photo while docking in St. Lucia earlier this week. The pbadengers were not dropped and the boat returned to Curacao

The ship left Curacao for the neighboring island of St. Lucia on April 28.

Before departure, a woman crew member had consulted a doctor for the treatment of cold symptoms. She told the doctors that she had recently gone to Europe.

A blood sample was taken, but by the time the authorities diagnosed her with measles, she had already left the ship's port.

Health officials in Curaçao then alerted the authorities in St. Lucia, which banned pbadengers from disembarking when they reached the island. The ship has now returned to Curacao.

Officials urged anyone visiting the Freewinds ship from April 22-28 to be examined by a doctor.

Symptoms include runny nose, fever and a rash with red spots. The measles virus is highly contagious and can cause blindness, deafness, brain damage or death.

Measles has sickened more than 700 people in 22 US states this year. Federal officials said the outbreak was caused by misinformation about vaccines.

Diagnoses are at their highest level since 1994, when 963 cases were reported.

According to the CDC, this year, 44 people have caught the disease while they were traveling to another country.

Some of them have triggered outbreaks in the United States, mostly among unvaccinated people.

This includes the largest epidemics in the Orthodox Jewish communities in New York and surrounding areas.

Three-quarters of people who have contracted the disease are children or teenagers.

More than 300 people are aboard the ship, which the Church of Scientology website describes as a "floating religious retreat dispensing the most advanced level of spiritual counseling in the religion of Scientology".

Measles cases are highest in the United States since 1994