The cruise industry for years has asked boarding passengers to fill out a health questionnaire, primarily to help stop the spread of norovirus. In light of the Ebola concerns, cruise lines today began asking more pointed questions about whether they've had contact with a person with Ebola or someone who helped care for such a patient, according to the Cruise Lines International Association.
"Working with cruise line health and medical professionals, CLIA provided its member cruise lines with a sample protocol that includes denial of boarding for all passengers and crew arriving from countries designated with a Level 3 Travel Health warning by CDC," CLIA said in a statement. "Additional measures include denial of boarding to passengers and crew who traveled to, in or through those countries within a minimum of 21 days before embarkation.
"Further, we have now recommended additional 'contact screening,' in addition to travel history screening, and denial of boarding for anyone who had physical contact with, or helped care for, a person with Ebola during the same time frame."
Level 3 Travel Health warnings urge people to "avoid nonessential travel" to those countries. The Level 3 warnings currently apply to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Several cruise lines said they had implemented more stringent screening, which came about after Carnival Cruise Lines announced that a Dallas healthcare worker who might have handled lab specimens from an Ebola victim was isolated on the Carnival Magic. The ship was subsequently denied clearance at Cozumel.
Princess Cruises posted a notice on its website that says it is "screening for passengers or crew members who have visited or traveled through Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea within 21 days of a cruise departure date, and they will be denied boarding. We are also monitoring bookings for any guests coming from these countries."
Princess also said it would "deny boarding to any guest who has had physical contact with or helped care for a person suspected of having Ebola or diagnosed as having Ebola within a minimum of 21 days before embarkation until further notice."
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. also said it has "strong and serious screening measures in place designed to prevent any at-risk person from boarding our ships. We have been working closely with CLIA on Ebola protocols that the entire industry is following."
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