Sadists Aboard the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line
From The Steady Drip
Royal Caribbean cruise ended after illness outbreak
Norovirus suspected as gastrointestinal illness with vomiting, diarrhea that infected 281 passengers
Health officials have boarded Royal Caribbean International’s Explorer of the Seas to investigate an illness outbreak that has stricken at least 300 people with gastrointestinal symptoms including vomiting and diarrhea.
The Royal Caribbean cruise line on Sunday ended a ship’s 10-day trip in the Caribbean early after hundreds of passengers and crew members were sickened with a gastrointestinal illness.
The Miami-based company made the announcement a few hours after officials from the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention boarded the Explorer of the Seas during its U.S. Virgin Islands port call to investigate the illness and evaluate the outbreak response.
“New reports of illness have decreased day-over-day, and many guests are again up and about. Nevertheless, the disruptions caused by the early wave of illness means that we were unable to deliver the vacation our guests were expecting,” Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. said in a statement.
The decision to end the trip came after consultation between CDC officials and members of the company’s medical team, the company said.
The CDC said earlier that 281, or nearly 10 per cent, of the 3,050 passengers aboard the 15-deck ship reported getting sick during the cruise that left Cape Liberty, N. J., on Tuesday. Twenty-two crew members also reported feeling ill, according to a Friday statement from the health agency.
Norovirus suspected culprit
On Sunday evening, the cruise line said the outbreak of the gastrointestinal illness with vomiting and diarrhea “spiked over the weekend,” but it did not disclose a tally of sickened people.
Tests would have to confirm what caused the outbreak, but fast-spreading norovirus is often to blame for similar symptoms sweeping closed quarters like those on cruise ships.
Royal Caribbean said special cleaning products and disinfectants proven to kill norovirus were being used to clean the ship before it returned to the U.S. It said a full sanitization program would be carried out after the Explorer of the Seas reached its home port Wednesday.
Janet Diaz, a company spokeswoman, said CDC representatives boarded the Explorer of the Seas during the afternoon when it docked in St. Thomas, the main island of the U.S. Virgin Islands. During the previous port call in Puerto Rico, the ship underwent “extensive and thorough sanitizing” to help prevent more people from getting sick, she said.
Passengers and crew who fell ill have “responded well to over-the-counter medication being administered onboard the ship,” Diaz said.
On Friday, an Explorer of the Seas passenger named Arnee Dodd tweeted that she had fallen ill aboard the ship and was quarantined with the other sick people. The Connecticut woman wrote that ship employees “put a lock down on food & are constantly cleaning everything.”
Royal Caribbean said it was “taking several steps” to compensate passengers for the shortened trip. It also sought to assure customers scheduled for the ship’s next voyage that “all possible measures will have been taken to prevent further problems.”
PHOTO: (Thomas Layer/Associated Press)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/royal-caribbean-cruise-ended-after-illness-outbreak-1.2512000
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Related story:
Passengers ill on cruise ship that sailed from Md.
By Kasey Jones From Seattle pi
BALTIMORE (AP) — Passengers sailing on the Grandeur of the Seas from the Port of Baltimore have been sickened on two consecutive trips, federal health officials say.
The most recent outbreak occurred on the Royal Caribbean International vessel, which left Baltimore on April 5 for a seven-day cruise to the Bahamas, Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said in an email Friday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on its website that about 100 passengers and crew members fell ill with vomiting and diarrhea. Martinez said a norovirus was believed to be the cause.
“Those affected by the short-lived illness have responded well to over-the-counter medication being administered onboard the ship,” Martinez said. She said the latest ship carried 2,120 passengers and 800 crew members.
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