Personal Injury Law

Alaska awaits verification of swine flu finding

By Lipcon, Margulies & Alsina, P.A.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- State health officials had expected to get verification Monday that a crew member aboard a cruise ship in Alaska waters contracted swine flu, but officials may have to wait a bit longer.

Ann Potempa, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Social Services, said it looks increasingly unlikely the verification would come Monday.

The testing was done at the Washington State Public Health Laboratory and was being verified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Dr. Jay Butler, Alaska's chief medical officer, announced Sunday that the crew member aboard the Serenade of the Seas had a probable case of swine flu but testing was being conducted by the federal health agency for confirmation. No other people aboard the ship reported flu-like symptoms since the woman became ill on May 2. She was placed in isolation two days later.

The female crew member underwent a course of treatment with Tamiflu, an anti-viral medication that is effective against swine flu. She has not had flu symptoms or been running a fever for several days.

Cynthia Martinez, spokeswoman for Royal Caribbean International, said the female crew member completed a CDC-recommended 7-day period of isolation, but she did not know if the crew member had been cleared to rejoin the crew. She said the woman will have to meet with the ship's doctor and be cleared to go back to work.

The Serenade of the Seas is on a 14-day cruise to southeast Alaska and Canada. Its next port-of-call is in Sitka on Tuesday. It departed San Francisco and headed north on May 2, the same day the female crew member began feeling sick.

Butler has said there is no reason to restrict the movement of passengers aboard the ship, as long as they are not reporting flu-like symptoms.

Before embarking on the Alaska cruise, the Serenade of the Seas departed San Juan, Puerto Rico for a 14-night Panama Canal voyage in which the ship visited Mexico, the country hit hardest by swine flu. Scientists now say that the new strain of swine flu could have sickened 23,000 people in Mexico before anyone realized it was an epidemic on April 23.

Butler said the ship's medical staff followed strict isolation procedures to prevent the spread of the illness.

At least 61 people have been killed by swine flu around the world, and the World Health Organization has confirmed 4,800 cases.

Butler said the case aboard the ship can't be considered Alaska's first case for several reasons, including that the testing was done outside Alaska and the crew member is not an Alaskan.

Full post as published by Cruise Ship Law on May 11, 2009 (boomark / email).