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REUTERS: The Caribbean nation of St. Lucia imposed a quarantine on the visiting cruise ship, forbidding any pbadenger or crew to leave the ship while in port, after a case of measles was diagnosed on board, announced the medical officer of the island.
Dr. Merlene Frederick-James said Tuesday in a video statement posted on YouTube that the Saint Lucia Department of Health had ordered the restriction after having spoken with the Pan American Health Organization and Health Authority. 39, others on the risk of exposure of the inhabitants of the island.
The ministry learned that the case of measles had been confirmed by "two reputable sources" and, in the light of the outbreaks of measles in the United States and the highly contagious nature of the disease, "we considered it prudent to put the ship in quarantine, "said Frederick-James. .
She gave no information about the ship or its origins.
NBC News, quoting a Coast Guard Sergeant from St. Lucia, reported that the boat in question was called Freewinds, which corresponds to the name of a 300-meter-long vessel belonging to the United States. Church of Scientology and operated by it.
The international ship monitoring website, MarineTraffic.com, also showed that a Panamanian-flagged pbadenger vessel, identified as the Freewinds VMS, was moored in a port near Castries, the capital of Sainte-Marie. Lucia. The website indicated that the ship was heading off the island of Dominica.
The website of the Church of Scientology describes the Tradewinds as a "floating religious retreat that provides the most advanced level of spiritual counseling in the religion of Scientology". He says his port of attachment is Curacao.
Church officials did not immediately react to Reuters' efforts to solicit their comments on the situation.
NBC News reported that nearly 300 pbadengers and crew members were aboard the ship, a woman member of the crew who was diagnosed with measles.
The quarantine cruise ships comes as the number of measles cases in the United States has reached a peak of 25 years with more than 700 people diagnosed this week, part of the international resurgence of the disease.
Public health officials attribute declining vaccination rates in some communities as a result of erroneous information about inoculation that has made these populations vulnerable to a rapid spread of infection among people not immune to the virus.
Last month, health authorities in Los Angeles ordered the quarantine of two university campuses after each of them reported at least one confirmed case.
The vast majority of cases in the United States have occurred in children who have not received the three-way measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which confers immunity to the disease. indicated officials.
Measles is spread by accidental contact with the virus, which can remain infectious in the air of an enclosed space up to two hours after its expiration by a person carrying the disease.
The transmission rate from one infected person to another nearby person who lacks immunity is about 90%, and an infected person can be contagious for four days before showing signs of disease.
(Steve Gorman report in Los Angeles, edited by Darren Schuettler)
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