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Twelve Carnival Liberty cruisers sick with 24 hour‘stomach bug’
by The Daily Herald
Posted: Nov 20, 2006 14:14 UTC
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POINTE BLANCHE - Twelve passengers and six crew members aboard cruise ship Carnival Liberty were in isolation, sick with a “very contagious” 24-hour stomach bug apparently caused by Norovirus.
U.S. Centre for Disease Control (CDC) Chief of Vessel Sanitation programme Dave Forney confirmed the outbreak on board the ship, which was in port Thursday, when contacted by The Daily Herald.
International press reports on Wednesday claimed that 700 plus passengers and crew members were sick on board the vessel which started a 16-day transatlantic voyage in Rome on November 3.
The reports stirred up some panic on St. Maarten and the international front. This resulted in the island’s public relations firm RFCT, based in New York, being inundated with phone calls from the press and other concerned groups around the world. The firm has since been busy with “damage control” by informing the international press that the island is safe for visitors, St. Maarten Tourist Bureau Director Regina LaBega said.
Initially, some 700 persons were sick with mild to severe forms of the 24-hour stomach bug which is spread when infected persons do not carry out proper sanitation measures such as not washing hands after using the toilet and touching other surfaces, Forney said. Once the outbreak started, the ship underwent an “extensive and vigorous cleaning and disinfection with special cleaning agents,” according to the cruise line.
Norovirus is an extremely common and highly contagious virus which causes gastroenteritis. The CDC estimates that Norovirus is the causative agent of some 23 million cases of gastroenteritis in the U.S. annually. The vast majority of outbreaks occur on land. Annually, less than one percent of all cruise ship passengers are affected by Norovirus.
In a press statement issued Wednesday, Carnival Cruise Line said, “On a cumulative basis, in excess of 500 guests out of a total of 2,804 have reported symptoms, as well as more than 100 crew members out of a total of 1,166.”
To ascertain the cause of the outbreak, three environmental health specialists from the U.S. Centre for Disease Control (CDC) flew to St. Maarten Wednesday evening and boarded Liberty early Thursday morning. The specialists will stay onboard until Sunday when the ship docks in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
While on board, the specialists are interviewing the passengers and crew who had the first cases of the stomach bug to get a full report of their activities prior to their illness. From this information, the risk factor of another outbreak will be determined.
One of the specialists will also inspect the food and food preparation areas and the water supplies, Forney added.
According to Carnival Cruise Line, it was determined shortly after the start of the voyage that at least two guests were sick with gastrointestinal illness just prior to the cruise and sought medical treatment in Rome before boarding the ship.
However, some passengers, based on an e-mail sent to this newspaper and internet logs, believe that the outbreak was possibly caused by something foul smelling in the ice served in an onboard restaurant.
Also passengers were said to be angry, because they were not getting an explanation about what was happening when the outbreak started. “Employees were being told to keep quiet about the issue. But the infirmary was full of sick people and the nurse and doctor had to work overtime. Questions were not answered when Carnival notified the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta about this outbreak,” the passenger who contacted this newspaper wrote.
Due to the outbreak, Liberty’s November 19 voyage has been modified from a six-day round-trip Caribbean voyage from Ft. Lauderdale to a four-day cruise departing November 21.
This change will facilitate two full days at dock without guests on board for a thorough sanitizing of the vessel. The new itinerary will include stops at Key West and Cozumel.
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