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The Curaçao authorities announced Friday that they would quarantine a vessel carrying 300 people to the Dutch Caribbean island after being banned from disembarking in nearby St. Lucia due to 39, a confirmed case of measles.
Health officials said they would board the ship on arrival early Saturday to badess who had already been vaccinated or who had already contracted the disease. They said that proof was needed and that non-compliant people would be vaccinated immediately.
The Freewinds vessel, of a length of 300 meters, would belong to the Church of Scientology and is normally moored in Curacao when it is not used. Church officials did not return messages for comment.
The ship left St. Lucia Thursday night after two days in quarantine. Authorities said the ship's doctor had requested 100 vaccines after a diagnosis of measles had been diagnosed in a crew member.
Health officials in Saint Lucia told the Associated Press that the patient had joined the group and had left the eastern Caribbean island Thursday night.
Dr. Izzy Gerstenbluth, an epidemiologist in Curacao, said the female crew member was in Europe and arrived on April 17 in Curacao. She then visited a doctor on April 22 for cold symptoms. A blood sample was taken and sent to Aruba, where authorities confirmed that it was a measles outbreak on April 29, a day after the ship's departure for St. Lucia. Curaçao's health officials then alerted the authorities in St. Lucia.
We did not know what the crew member was doing in Europe.
Officials urged anyone visiting the ship from April 22-28 to be examined by a doctor.
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.
Measles has sickened more than 700 people in 22 US states this year, federal officials say the resurgence of the disease is caused by misinformation about vaccines.
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