Foodborne Illness On Cruise Ships

In October and November 2002 Holland Americas Amsterdam cruise ship experienced four successive cruises in which norovirus struck members of both the crew and passengers.

Foodborne illness on cruise ships. Salmonella spp were most frequently associated with outbreaks. J Hyg Lond 1986 97229236. Coli Hepatitis Listeria Shigella Rotavirus.

Daniels NA Neimann J Karpati et al. Control of person-to-person spread of illness among crew and passengers becomes the major objective. Are on voyages where 3 or more of passengers or crew report symptoms of gastrointestinal illness to the ships medical staff.

Three outbreaks of waterborne enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli on cruise ships. Of ship factors contributing to outbreaks mortality and morbidity and food vehicles were collected. Seafood cocktail was implicated in 8 of 13 documented food-borne outbreaks.

The predominant symptoms reported are vomiting and diarrhea. The risk of diarrhoeal disease outbreaks on cruise ships appears to have decreased since implementation of the VSP but has not been eliminated. Health officials track illness on cruise ships.

Are on voyages from 3-21 days long. Ten additional cases were diagnosed by the medical staff the fourth day of the voyage and a total of 70 cases was either diagnosed or self-reported by the fifth day Table 2. Even with all possible precautions you may still feel sick during your cruise vacation.

Although norovirus outbreaks may begin as foodborne or waterborne disease easy person-to-person transmission occurs through fecal- or vomitus-splattered surfaces other items clothing and especially hands. For international cruise ships porting in the United States from 2010 through 2015 816 outbreaks of norovirus infections occurred each year. Major cruise lines such as Norwegian Royal Caribbean Carnival Holland America and Disney were hit 19 times by outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness all of which were attributed to norovirus.