CLIA heightens protocol for screening cruise passengers

CLIA said that a protocol it is providing to members regarding cruise passenger screening for the Ebola virus has been strengthened to take into account contacts the passenger may have.

“We have now recommended additional ‘contact screening,’ in addition to travel history screening, and denial of boarding for anyone who had physical contact with, or helped care for, a person with Ebola” within 21 days of embarkation, CLIA said.

The heightened protocol comes as Carnival Cruise Lines reported a Dallas lab supervisor who worked at the hospital where a patient died from Ebola had been isolated on a western Caribbean cruise.

In a statement, Carnival said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considered the passenger “very low risk,” that the passenger has had no symptoms for the past 19 days, and that the voluntary quarantine was done in an abundance of caution.

Previously, CLIA’s sample protocol called for denial of boarding for all passengers and crew arriving from countries designated with a Level 3 Travel Health warning by the CDC (Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia).

Additional measures include denial of boarding to passengers and crew who traveled to, in or through those countries within a minimum of 21 days before embarkation.

Several cruise lines, including Carnival, Royal Caribbean International and Norwegian Cruise Line, said they are screening guests prior to boarding to ensure that they have not recently visited one of the countries where Ebola cases are originating.

Under the earlier protocol, the Dallas lab supervisor would not have received extra scrutiny because she had not been to one of the countries designated with a travel health warning.

The ship affected, Carnival Magic, left Galveston Oct. 12 and is scheduled to return Oct. 19, Carnival said.