South Pacific cruise ship shunned over swine flu

CANBERRA, Australia – Swine flu fears disrupted another Australian cruise Tuesday when New Caledonia authorities refused to allow passengers ashore because some had flu symptoms, an official said. Meanwhile, other Asian countries reported that the virus was continuing to spread.

The Dawn Princess with almost 2,000 passengers aboard is on a 13-day South Pacific cruise. New Caledonia was to be the final destination before the ship returns to Sydney on Friday.

But authorities refused the ship permission to let passengers disembark on Lifou Island after the crew reported four or five had flu symptoms, cruise ship owner Carnival PLC spokesman Anthony Fisk said.

"This would have to do with the heightened awareness surrounding swine flu," Fisk said.

Two Carnival cruises from Sydney to the South Pacific and to Australia's Great Barrier Reef have reported cases of swine flu in recent weeks.

Fisk said Carnival regularly sails through New Caledonia. He did not know if a cruise ship had ever before been refused permission to land passengers. The ship had already visited Fiji and Vanuatu.

Swabs from the sick passengers will be flown from New Caledonia to Sydney, where they will be tested for swine flu before the Dawn Princess returns, Fisk said.

If swine flu is confirmed, all the passengers and crew will likely have to quarantine themselves in Sydney for a week.

Australian health authorities have revised their quarantine rules of cruise ships because of the earlier outbreaks, which have dealt an economic blow to the cruise industry.

With Australia in the first month of the southern hemisphere's winter flu season, the tally of confirmed swine flu cases jumped by 100 Tuesday to 501.

India, meanwhile, confirmed swine flu in a woman and her child who recently returned from the United States, bringing the total number of cases in that country to three.

The 34-year-old woman and her 5-year-old son flew into the southern city of Chennai from Dubai before taking a domestic flight to the city of Coimbatore where they tested positive for the virus, the Health Ministry said in a statement late Monday. Both are being quarantined.

Passengers who traveled on the same flights were being sought and advised to monitor their health, the statement said.

India has posted medical teams at its international airports to assess travelers.

Chinese authorities confirmed four more cases of swine flu Tuesday, bringing the total number on the mainland to 43. The territory of Hong Kong has 15 other cases.

The official Xinhua News Agency said two cases were confirmed Tuesday in Shanghai and one each in the provinces of Hubei and Henan.

Chinese authorities have been enforcing quarantines and temperature checks at airports throughout the country. In 2003, China's slow response was widely blamed for causing the global outbreak of SARS, and officials have been especially careful this time.

New Zealand on Tuesday recorded the first new case of the virus there since May 15, taking to 10 the tally of confirmed cases there.

The new case is a child who was a passenger on a flight that arrived from North America on Sunday, according to Mark Jacobs, director of public health.

The passenger was isolated at home and was being treated with antiviral drugs while officials traced passengers who were on the flight, Jacobs said in a statement.

New Zealand, the first nation in the Asia-Pacific region to record confirmed swine flu infections — all of them in people who had contracted it overseas — so far has prevented the illness from spreading within the domestic population.

Thailand's Health Ministry confirmed a fifth case of swine flu in the country on Tuesday, in an 18-year-old woman who returned from the United States last month.

The World Health Organization says more than 50 countries have reported more than 15,000 cases of swine flu, including 99 deaths.