United States: An outbreak of gastrointestinal illness affected more 70 people during the voyage on P&O Cruises.
Concerning the performing voyage, 65 passengers out of 1959 passengers on the Arcadia line ship and 10 staff members got sick, according to the CDC. Its major manifestations were nausea and vomiting, and diarrhea.
Regarding the causative agent the health agency listed them as unknown.
As reported by USA Today, it is a month long round trip voyage from the United Kingdom’s Southampton to the USA and Canada it set sail on September 3rd as per Cruise Mapper.
“During boarding all guests were given an informational flyer with precautionary health measures while onboard as well as onshore, as it is done in all our liner’s worldwide,” the representative of the line shared with USA TODAY in an email.
“(Subsequent to receiving the reports of guests who developed ailments, including stomach upsets,) P&O Cruises without delay put into practice reapproved, proven and enhanced sanitisation protocols as a way of protecting the interest of all the people on board.”
Other measures that the CDC stated that were taken include: announcement in order to notify the onboard passengers and crew, to report the cases, and to promote hand washing.
If you fall sick or are injured (or bitten by monkeys) at the middle or end of a trip while on a cruise ship.?
The health agency has recorded nine escapes of gastrointestinal sickness on cruises that fitted into its reporting level up to the first quarter of 2024. In 164 of them, norovirus was stated as the etiology in 159 reports, except three.
However, what many people may not know that cases associated with cruise ships represent only one percent of all the estimated reported cases according to the CDC.
“It is not as if there is a special characteristic or attribute of cruise ships,” Dr. Sarah E. Hochman, a hospital epidemiologist, and the section chief of infectious diseases at the NYU Langone Health’s Tisch Hospital said in an interview with USA TODAY in April. ‘It could be any form of proximate setting, but it’s also happening out in the community, although not on the same scale as this among households and their contacts.’