Cruise ship hit by swine flu bug

A Spanish cruise ship has been hit by an outbreak of swine flu, officials have confirmed.

The Ocean Dream was heading to Aruba but with the flu pandemic hitting its decks has had to dock at the Venezuelan island of Margarita, where 300 passengers got off the boat.

Pullmantur, the tour operator responsible for the ship, confirmed that three crew members had been diagnosed with the virus while 11 more are reported to have symptoms.

The cruise liner has been placed under quarantine until June 24th when it will continue its journey to Arruba, where people will disembark according to the sanitary rules set out by the island's health authorities, the company confirmed.

Until the ship's quarantine period has elapsed the 1,200 passengers will have to remain on board. Previously, the ship docked in Grenada but officials there would not allow passengers, healthy or infected, to disembark.

Venezuela had already confirmed 52 cases of swine flu, although none of them have been fatal. It is one of the 74 nations with reported cases of the potentially deadly strain of flu.

Royal Caribbean chief executive Richard Fain said last week the flu outbreak had "a short, but highly disruptive impact to our operations".

He added that all other cruise liners belonging to the firm would be returning to their original itineraries.

Passengers on the ship, including 200 Spaniards, had signed up for a cruise around the Caribbean. Its next stop would have been Barbados.

According to the World Health Organisation, swine flu is now a global pandemic and in Scotland this week the virus claimed its first UK fatality.

There have been 30,000 cases diagnosed around the globe and 140 deaths, with schools, including Eton, closing after pupils have contracted the illness.

Pullmantur recently launched a cruise to specifically target Mexican holidaymakers, the Pacific Dream. Mexico is the country where the virus first originated and the cruise operation was cancelled with the outbreak of the H1N1, the official name for swine flu.

The Health Protection Agency in the UK announced 150 new cases of the virus on June 18th, indicating that the illness shows no sign of abating.

"These cases involve people with clinical symptoms who have been given anti-virals but are subject to further checking as we continue to assess the effectiveness of clinical diagnosis," the Scottish government said.