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Source: Reuters -
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Barbados and Grenada refused this week to allow passengers to
leave a Spanish cruise ship owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd
because of fears of an H1N1 flu outbreak, authorities and shipping
sources said.
They added the moves were precautionary and that Grenadian and
Barbadian authorities had no laboratory confirmation anyone on
board was suffering from the H1N1 swine flu strain, declared a
pandemic by the World Health Organization last week.
Many of the small island states in the eastern Caribbean depend on
cruise ship arrivals as an important source of foreign exchange for
their vulnerable economies.
On Monday, the Ocean Dream operated by Pullmantur Cruises docked in
Grenada, but no one was permitted to leave the ship because of
reports several people on board had flu-like symptoms, a spokesman
for Grenada's Health Ministry said.
The cruise liner's next destination was Barbados on Tuesday, but
the ship was not allowed to berth by Barbadian authorities because
of the reports of the flu-like symptoms among its occupants,
shipping agents in Bridgetown said.
Ocean Dream, which can carry more than 1,000 passengers,
subsequently sailed for Margarita Island on Venezuela's Caribbean
coast.
Miami-based Royal Caribbean, which owns Pullmantur, did not
immediately respond to requests for comment.
Grenadian Health Ministry spokesman Keville Frederick said that
while "quite a significant number" of those on board the liner had
flu-like symptoms, it was impossible to know if anyone had H1N1 flu
without conducting laboratory tests.
"What we did was, keeping with protocol, to err on the side of
caution. We decided that the passengers should not be allowed to
disembark," Frederick added.
A number of Caribbean states have reported confirmed cases of the
H1N1 swine flu.
Royal Caribbean Chief Executive Richard Fain said last week the flu
outbreak had "a short, but highly disruptive impact to our
operations," although he added vessels were returning to their
original itineraries.
The launch of a Pullmantur cruise targeting Mexican nationals, the
Pacific Dream, had to be cancelled because of the H1N1 outbreak in
Mexico, the epicentre of the pandemic.
