Unaware ship required shot

In April ’03 we booked a cruise with Orient Lines’ Marco Polo. We would embark February ’04 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

We then personally applied for our visas at the Brazilian Consulate in San Francisco. We asked if shots were needed and were told, “No inoculations of any kind are required for Brazil,” although a shot for yellow fever was recommended.

Prior to boarding the ship, during a 5-night stay in Buenos Aires, we visited the Brazilian side of Iguaçu Falls and were never asked whether or not we had yellow fever shots. When we tried to board the Marco Polo on Feb. 21, however, we were told we could not sail with the ship because we had no yellow fever documentation. At no time had Orient Lines ever informed us of this requirement.

Because there were over 20 passengers attempting to board also without the yellow fever shots, we finally were allowed to board and were told that a Brazilian doctor would come on board in Uruguay to administer these injections upon our arrival at Rio de Janeiro.

For me, the problem was resolved, but for my husband this was a serious complication, because he was a recent kidney transplant recipient and any shot of this kind would have been life-threatening. When I explained this to the purser, she informed me he would have to get a document from his doctor in San Francisco certifying to this or else he would have to get off the ship when we reached Brazil.

This occurred on a Saturday, and over the weekend my husband spent three days and $300 in ship-to-shore telephone calls attempting to reach his doctor or one of his colleagues who could authorize the document. On Monday evening we were told the document had been faxed to the ship, but it never arrived. More telephone calls were made, and another fax was sent from the hospital, but it never arrived either.

In desperation, on the day prior to our arriving in Brazil, we asked for the help of one of the ship’s senior officers. He took charge and within a few hours we were advised that the letter from our doctor had been received, all was in order and my husband could continue on the ship.

Immediately upon arriving back home, I contacted the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C., via e-mail, and they confirmed the Brazilian Consulate’s statement that yellow fever shots were not (nor were they at the time of our cruise) required.

I would point out that our travel agent also had not been told that Orient Lines required that passengers have yellow fever shots for Brazil.

ANN WILL

Millbrae, CA

ITN sent a copy of the above letter to Orient Lines and received no reply.

The Brazilian Tourism Office website www.braziltourism.org confirms what the Brazilian Embassy wrote to Ms. Will after the cruise: “A yellow fever vaccination certificate is required only if the applicant has traveled within the last 90 days to any of the following countries: Angola, Bolivia, Benin, Burkina, Cameroon, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, French Guyana, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Republic of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Peru, Sierra Leone, Sudan or Venezuela. Yellow fever vaccination is advisable if the applicant’s destination in Brazil includes any of the following states: Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Federal District of Brasilia, Goiás, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima and/or Tocantins.

Ms. Will told ITN that the “Marco Polo” was not visiting any of the above destinations on her cruise.