Ruby Princess quarantines people with flu-like symptoms

[samavarcruiser]

Ruby Princess quarantines people with flu-like symptoms

 

By Johanna Jainchill

 

7/24/2009

 

Four crew members and one passenger on the Ruby Princess are currently isolated on the ship and being treated for flu-like symptoms by the ship's medical team.

 

Princess Cruises said the patients will not be allowed to go ashore until they are no longer contagious, and that it is not seeing an increased number of flu cases among passengers or crew.

 

Princess said that the because H1N1 swine flu is the predominant flu strain circulating worldwide, it is treating all flu-like illness as H1N1 as a precaution.

 

To contain the spread of illnesses onboard ships, including influenza, the line said that it uses enhanced screening practices for passengers and crew embarking ships.

 

Ruby Princess is currently sailing on a 12-day Mediterranean itinerary, which concludes in Venice on July 27.

[CintiPam]

"there are 5 persons (4 from crew and 1 passenger) with COMMON flu and not swine flu... they are very well and without fever but stay in their rooms for security reason.. other passengers follow their program without problems and this afternoon Ruby Princess live Piraeus and go to Venice.."

 

Quoted from Fafos' post yesterday on the Greek ports board.

[grandbanksguy]

Ruby Princess quarantines people with flu-like symptoms

 

By Johanna Jainchill

 

7/24/2009

 

Four crew members and one passenger on the Ruby Princess are currently isolated on the ship and being treated for flu-like symptoms by the ship's medical team.

 

Princess Cruises said the patients will not be allowed to go ashore until they are no longer contagious, and that it is not seeing an increased number of flu cases among passengers or crew.

 

Princess said that the because H1N1 swine flu is the predominant flu strain circulating worldwide, it is treating all flu-like illness as H1N1 as a precaution.

 

To contain the spread of illnesses onboard ships, including influenza, the line said that it uses enhanced screening practices for passengers and crew embarking ships.

 

Ruby Princess is currently sailing on a 12-day Mediterranean itinerary, which concludes in Venice on July 27.

 

See the following post from a passenger who arrived today in Venice on the Ruby:

 

Hi,

Sorry for the delay in posting again, but we have had such wonderful weather and the internet has been so slow over the past few days. We had a great day in Istanbul but we took the Princess shuttle and was on the coach for over an hour due to traffic - we wished we had taken the tram which can by-pass everything and seems to stop right by the Grand Bazaar. The journey back however was only about 10 minutes. We had a very hot day in Kusadasi at over 100 degrees. We did, however, notice a thermal imagining camera as we disembarked the ship in the cruise terminal. This may have been in place for some time and we did not read anything into this. However, we did take a bit longer to get clearance in Athens and the Captain Tony Draper has just make an announcement on board to the effect that despite media reports at home and in Greece, Ruby Princess does not have the H1N1 virus on board and he felt that he had to personally re-assure passengers of this fact. He did however, say that at present there are 5/6 passengers in isolation on board out of over 3500 on this cruise, and this is quite usual on any voyage. He did say that with all the hype over swine flu if a ship has any passengers in quarantine for any reason, on entering a port, then he has to inform the entering port by law.

 

Apart from this we are having a great cruise and have used the Sanctuary on a number of occasions.

 

At present we are at sea and will be sailing into Venice tomorrow about 10 a.m. local time.

 

Will try and post again if the interent allows.

[Travel to Ports]

Hello,

These concerns will consider for the next year and will probably just get worse. Before we left Texas for the months of April and May entries from Mexico and returns from Mexico led to great concern and multiple school closings, even here in Houston.

 

Happily we were well as we began our trip to Barcelona. Perhaps because our plane originated in Newark NJ our plane did not taxi directly to a walkway to the modern Barcelona airport, but parked away from it. We completed questionnaires re health (repeated when we boarded our ship 6 days later) and were greeted by personnel wearing masks as we walked down steps to board a bus to the airport (rather troubling). However, once we entered the airport we were ignored completely!

 

So far, apparently cruises that have visited Mexican ports have been more of an issue, at least through May/June. I believe that passengers who visit the doctor while on board may be restricted to their cabins at the discretion of medical staff -- good idea to have a balcony cabin?

 

David

[grandbanksguy]

Ruby Princess quarantines people with flu-like symptoms

 

By Johanna Jainchill

 

7/24/2009

 

Four crew members and one passenger on the Ruby Princess are currently isolated on the ship and being treated for flu-like symptoms by the ship's medical team.

 

Princess Cruises said the patients will not be allowed to go ashore until they are no longer contagious, and that it is not seeing an increased number of flu cases among passengers or crew.

 

Princess said that the because H1N1 swine flu is the predominant flu strain circulating worldwide, it is treating all flu-like illness as H1N1 as a precaution.

 

To contain the spread of illnesses onboard ships, including influenza, the line said that it uses enhanced screening practices for passengers and crew embarking ships.

 

Ruby Princess is currently sailing on a 12-day Mediterranean itinerary, which concludes in Venice on July 27.

 

Latest post from the Ruby by crows nest club:

 

" We are back home after our eventful last few days on board Ruby and our arrival in Venice.

Captain made a noon announcement on the sea day prior to our schedule arrival in Venice at 1 p.m. on the 26th July. He said that despite various media reports there were no confirmed cases of the h1n1 virus on board Ruby Princess. We felt that the word 'confirmed' was the operative word here and that there could still have been suspected cases, but he did not say anything about this. He did, however, go on to say that he would be bringing foward our arrival in Venice by 3 hours to 10 a.m to allow time for the health authorties to come aboard to clear the ship. Upon arriving back in our cabins that day, each passenger had a health report to complete, indicating if they had any fever or cough, and also to give onward travel information from Venice, with home addresses and mobile telephone numbers. Each passenger would need to hand these completed forms in at the gangway, where their temperature would be taken before being allowed ashore in Venice. If any passenger had a raised temperature they were shown to the medical centre to be seen by the ships doctor who then re-took their temperature over a 10 minute period and if this then showed normal they were allowed ashore. Bearing in mind we had recently been experiencing temperatures of over 100 degrees in Turkey and Greece and the stress of thinking you may have a temperature, I am sure caused a few false alarms.

 

Whether Princess are still denying these reports now I cannot say. Perhaps someone on the present cruise may be able to update more on this."