Three crew members on an Australian cruise ship have been given the all-clear after being diagnosed with swine flu.
The three staff on P&O Cruises Australia’s Pacific Dawn were given a clean bill of health on May 28, after going into quarantine and taking anti-viral medication.
Two passengers who reported flu-like symptoms have been tested for swine flu, but both results were negative. There were 33 British passengers on board the ship.
Ann Sherry, chief executive of Carnival Australia, which operates Pacific Dawn, denied reports the entire ship had been quarantined by the Australian authorities.
However, she added that, because of the outbreak and concerns, the ship was no longer visiting any North Queensland ports, and would instead call at Brisbane on Saturday, before returning to Sydney three days earlier than planned.
Sherry said: “These results confirm that our measures have been effective, with no evidence of any person-to-person transmission of human swine flu on board the ship.
“Australia is in the middle of the seasonal flu season and it is not unexpected that two passengers out of about 2,000 may be experiencing normal flu-like symptoms.
“In these circumstances, we also isolate passengers in their cabins and, as an additional precaution, prescribe anti-viral medication as appropriate to speed up their recovery.”
A spokeswoman for P&O Cruises UK added the ship is not on sale in the UK, and it is thought the British passengers booked their cruises direct with the company’s Australian arm.