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Topics: Royal Caribbean, Cruise ship, Travel, Health
Ellie Kemp
Topics: Royal Caribbean, Cruise ship, Travel, Health
The CDC is investigating after more than 140 people have fallen unwell with a mystery illness after vacationing on a Royal Caribbean cruise.
Between July 4 and July 11, Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas operated a seven-night, round-trip cruise from Los Angeles.
Traveling to Mexico and back, excited vacationers were looking forward to a relaxing cruise getaway.
But upon disembarkation on July 11, some 134 passengers and seven crew members were reported having felt unwell with vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhea, the CDC reports.
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Some 3,914 guests were aboard the Navigator of the Seas ship in total.
In response, the cruise liner responded to the outbreak by ramping up its cleaning and disinfection measures and placing ill individuals in isolation.
A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean Group, the line’s parent company, told multiple media outlets: "The health and safety of our guests, crew, and the communities we visit are our top priority.
"To maintain an environment that supports the highest levels of health and safety onboard our ships, we implement rigorous cleaning procedures, many of which far exceed public health guidelines.”
As of July 11, the CDC is awaiting laboratory results to confirm the specific pathogen that's left people feeling so unwell.
But the reported symptoms meet the threshold for acute gastroenteritis (AGE).
Signs include three or more loose stools in a 24-hour period or vomiting, plus either diarrhea, muscle ache, headache, abdominal cramp or fever.
The most common cause of AGE on cruise ships tends to be norovirus, the CDC says.
So far this year, some 18 outbursts of gastrointestinal illness have been recorded on cruises - most of which were caused by norovirus.
The CDC said in its Vessel Sanitation Report about the incident: "Norovirus is often a cause of gastrointestinal illness outbreaks on cruise ships, but we don't always know the cause of the outbreak when we begin an investigation.
"Finding the agent that caused an outbreak (causative agent) can take time. When an outbreak occurs, people whose symptoms met the case definition are asked to provide stool or vomitus samples."
It continued: "These samples are tested to determine the causative agent. In this outbreak, samples are pending confirmatory testing."
Each year, the US records 2,500 reported norovirus outbreaks.
Cruise ships make up just one percent of all reported cases, with the virus also spreading in schools, from contaminated food - like leafy greens, fresh fruit and oysters - as well as healthcare facilities.
UNILAD has contacted Royal Caribbean for further comment.