Cruise Ship: Person With Ebola-Like Symptoms

Belizean local media reports that the visiting cruise ship Carnival Magic has a person on board displaying symptoms similar to those of Ebola.

The vessel is moored off Belize City. News site the Belizean reports the information based on local TV reports which say there is a couple on a ship tender, unable to return to the cruise ship, and refused entry to Belize City to catch an air ambulance waiting to take them to the their country of origin, the U.S. 

According to a local ministry of health report, the person exhibiting the symptoms has not been ashore. 

The cruise ship is carrying 4,633 people including 3,652 passengers. The Belize Coast Guard has been deployed to prevent anyone from leaving the ship, including the Belizean pilot on board.

Belize’s Ministry of Health has stated that in the event of an outbreak of Ebola in Belize, no patients would be allowed into the commercial capital Belize City. The government hospital, the Karl Heuesner Memorial Hospital, only has one Intensive Care Unit. 

Carnival Cruise Lines later released a statement saying: "Late afternoon on Wednesday, Oct. 15., we were made aware by the U.S. CDC of a guest sailing this week on board Carnival Magic who is a lab supervisor at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.  At no point in time has the individual exhibited any symptoms or signs of infection and it has been 19 days since she was in the lab with the testing samples.  She is deemed by CDC to be very low risk.  At this time, the guest remains in isolation on board the ship and is not deemed to be a risk to any guests or crew. It is important to reiterate that the individual has no symptoms and has been isolated in an extreme abundance of caution. We are in close contact with the CDC and at this time it has been determined that the appropriate course of action is to simply keep the guest in isolation on board."

An update on this news can be seen here.