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Cruise ship with swine flu outbreak heads to Aruba
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 18 - 06 - 2009


A Spanish cruise ship hit by a small
outbreak of swine flu was headed Today for the Caribbean
island of Aruba, where more than 400 passengers will
disembark, AP cited the vessel's Spanish owner as saying.
A Venezuelan state health official, Jorge Alchaer,
initially said the passengers and crew would be held in
quarantine aboard the Ocean Dream off Venezuela's Isla
Margarita, but he confirmed on Thursday that the vessel was
headed to Aruba.
The ship was originally carrying 759 passengers and 400
crew members for a planned nine-day tour that began last
Friday. But 342 Venezuelan passengers got off in Isla
Margarita Wednesday because that was their final
destination anyway, said an official with Spanish tour
operator Pullmantur, which owns the ship. She spoke on
condition of anonymity in line with company rules.
Three crew members have tested positive for swine flu and
11 others have flu symptoms but no passengers have fallen
ill, Pullmantur says.
The ship was denied permission to dock in Grenada and
Barbados on Wednesday. At that point, the company had not
yet received confirmation of the positive cases but warned
the authorities in those two countries that some crew
members were sick, the company says.
The ship is now scheduled to arrive Thursday in Aruba,
where the cruise originally began.
Passengers have apparently complained they are not getting
enough information on the swine flu outbreak.
«We are out on the water, with people who do not want to
tell us anything. This is not a quarantine, it is a
kidnapping,» passenger Mario Infantini told the newspaper
El Pais.
But the company official said the ship's crew had provided
travelers with all information it had as it became
available.
Venezuela's state news agency, Agencia Bolivariana de
Noticias, said the passengers included 198 Spaniards, 151
Colombians, 11 Argentines, 11 Peruvians and seven U.S.
citizens. There were also five passengers from the
Netherlands, four each from Brazil, Chile and Panama, three
from Uruguay, two each from Russia, Romania, France and one
each from Belgium, Ireland and Italy.
Passengers will receive a partial refund for not having
made the planned port calls in Grenada and Barbados, the
company official said.


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