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The Freewinds, a cruiser belonging to the Church of Scientology, was moored in quarantine in Castries, St. Lucia, on Thursday. The ship is now heading to the island of Curacao, site of its port of attachment.
Kirk Elliott / AFP / Getty Images
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Kirk Elliott / AFP / Getty Images
The Freewinds, a cruiser belonging to the Church of Scientology, was moored in quarantine in Castries, St. Lucia, on Thursday. The ship is now heading to the island of Curacao, site of its port of attachment.
Kirk Elliott / AFP / Getty Images
The cruise ship that was quarantined by St. Lucia due to a confirmed case of measles on board is bound for Curacao. We do not know what will happen when the ship, called Freewinds, gets there.
The Church of Scientology operates the ship and calls Curacao its original port. According to NBC News, nearly 300 passengers and crew members are on board.
A tracking map on MarineTraffic.com shows that the ship left the port city of Castries in St. Lucia on Thursday night and is scheduled to arrive in Willemstad, in the state of Curacao, on Saturday morning.
Health authorities in St. Lucia made the decision to quarantine the Freewinds after confirmation of measles from a crew member. It was feared that other people on board had been infected and that measles was not spreading to the Caribbean island, where the disease has not been transmitted locally since 1990. The Ministry of Health and Welfare Saint Lucia announced Thursday that it has provided 100 doses of measles vaccine to people on board the ship.
The disease is extremely contagious. An unvaccinated person can catch him just by being in the same room as an infected person, until two hours after the departure of the infected person.
In its latest update, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed more than 700 individual cases of measles in the United States so far this year. New York was one of the outbreaks of the epidemic, where 493 cases were recorded this year.
On his website, the Church of Scientology explains that for a Scientologist, boarding the Freewinds is "the pinnacle of a deeply spiritual journey".
As we announced on Thursday, the Church of Scientology said its members rely on the advice and treatment of doctors, but several high-level Scientologists have spoken out against vaccination.
The vaccination rate of Curacao is 97% among children born since 2007, according to the Pan American Health Organization.
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