Due to Ebola scare cruise passengers face tighter screening

The high anxiety over a Carnival Magic passenger at risk for Ebola virus exposure has subsided, but left in its wake is a heightened level of scrutiny for cruise passengers.

Since the emergence of the Ebola crisis in West Africa, cruise line trade organization CLIA has developed a protocol designed to screen out anyone who could bring the virus aboard.

In practical terms, it means passengers will be asked four questions by cruise line personnel in the terminal before embarkation. They may be required to respond verbally or in writing.

“A signed physical form is the principal measure of health screening,” a CLIA official said in answering questions about the process.

The protocols are distributed to cruise lines that are CLIA members, who are free to implement them or not. Most major cruise lines are using the guidelines.

CLIA President Christine Duffy said they typically go beyond technical requirements. Other types of transportation, such as airlines, are not using preboarding forms or questions to screen for Ebola risk, although passengers arriving at five U.S. airports from West Africa by air are getting special screenings.

The protocols were developed by cruise line health and medical professionals.

A sample and explanation of the screening procedure, provided by Carnival Cruise Lines, shows the first two questions for guests have to do with symptoms — vomiting and fever in combination with other ailments such as a runny nose. A yes answer triggers an examination by a shipboard medical officer, initially by telephone.

The protocol says passengers will be allowed to travel unless they are suspected of having “an illness of international public health concern.”

Questions 3 and 4 ask about travel to West Africa or contact with someone known or suspected to have Ebola in the past 21 days.

The Carnival Magic passenger and her husband left the ship routinely after its return to Galveston, after a State Department screening of the passenger’s blood found no sign of the virus.

Carnival Magic departed Galveston later on Oct. 19 with more than 4,000 new passengers, a Carnival spokeswoman said. There were a handful of cancellations, she said.