THURSDAY, May 2, 2019 (HealthDay News) — A case of measles has led to the quarantine of a cruise ship with nearly 300 passengers and crew on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, health officials reported Wednesday. They said that one female crew member has a confirmed case of measles and that the ship has been under quarantine since Monday morning. The ship is scheduled to leave late Thursday, NBC News reported.
“The ship’s doctor has the confirmed case in isolation on the ship,” Merlene Fredericks-James, M.D., St. Lucia’s chief medical officer, said in a statement. “The individual is in stable condition.” Fredericks-James also said that it is “likely that other persons on the boat may have been exposed.”
The island’s health officials did not name the cruise ship under quarantine, but St. Lucia Coast Guard Sgt. Victor Theodore told NBC News that its name is “Freewinds.” That is the name of a cruise ship owned and operated by the Church of Scientology, according to NBC News.
In other measles-related news, health officials say people who went to a movie theater in Orange County, California, last Thursday may have been exposed to measles. A woman in her 20s with the measles attended a midnight screening of the “Avengers: Endgame” movie at the AMC Dine-In Fullerton 20 on Thursday from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m., the Orange County Health Care Agency said, CNN reported. The agency said that everyone who was in the building may have been exposed, not just people who saw that particular movie. It also said that people who went to buildings at 5 Hutton Centre Drive in Santa Ana from last Wednesday through Friday may have been exposed to measles by the same woman, who recently traveled to a country with widespread measles activity, CNN reported. She is under voluntary isolation at home in Placentia, the agency said.
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