02 May 2008

Hepatitis worry after cruise passenger hospitalised in NZ

An NZPA report says that hundreds of holidaymakers who cruised the Pacific on the P&O liner Aurora are being tested for hepatitis E after a 75-year-old woman fell ill and had to be airlifted to an Auckland hospital.

Rosalind Boughton, from Dorset, England, was evacuated to New Zealand and another seven passengers have since been diagnosed with hepatitis type E during an 11-week world cruise which ended in Southampton on March 28.

All the 1800 passengers onboard have been sent a letter from Britain's Health Protection Agency requesting blood samples, the BBC reported today.

Seven people Ã¢â¬' men and women aged in their 50s and 60s Ã¢â¬' turned yellow and suffered sickness and diarrhoea after testing positive for the virus during the world cruise.

Mrs Boughton Ã¢â¬' who went yellow from "head to toe" and collapsed on the ship Ã¢â¬' is still awaiting test results.

She underwent treatment on the Aurora and was quarantined in her cabin before being airlifted to New Zealand, the Bournemouth Daily Echo reported.

Hepatitis E is a form of severe liver inflammation and is rife in Third World countries. It is usually passed through contaminated food or water and is fatal in 2 per cent of cases.

The remaining passengers have been asked not only to undergo blood tests but to answer 10-page questionnaires asking them to detail what they ate and drank on board the ship in a bid to establish the cause.

Passengers boarded the luxury ship in Southampton on January 7, visiting Barbados, Venezuela, the Panama Canal and Acapulco before the first passenger fell ill in February.

Mrs Boughton 's husband John, 72, said: "We were in the middle of nowhere between Honolulu and Samoa Ã¢â¬' it was very frightening as she was so ill.

"Her meals were brought in on plastic plates and the cleaners wore full masks when they came in."

He said they were awaiting her blood test results.

A spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency said: "The illness was most likely contracted by eating or drinking contaminated food or water during the cruise."

A spokesman for P&O declined to comment.

The Ã&#pound;200 million , 76,000-tonne Aurora has been labelled a jinxed ship in some newspapers since the bottle of champagne failed to smash when Princess Anne named her in 2000.

Over 600 passengers and crew fell ill with norovirus in 2003, and in 2005 the ship spent 11 days circling the Isle of Wight while crew tried to fix an engine problem before abandoning a round-the-world cruise.

A Report by The Mole from NZPA