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Passengers took to social media on Wednesday, tweeting they were forced to stay onboard after docking in Falmouth, Jamaica, for what was supposed to be a day of excursions. VSP inspectors board ships and conduct thorough checks to ensure compliance, and the standards are high. You can find a list of the most recent inspection scores and lists of violations for each ship on the VSP website.
Norovirus 2024: Highly Contagious Stomach Bug Is Spiking In US - TODAY
Norovirus 2024: Highly Contagious Stomach Bug Is Spiking In US.
Posted: Wed, 17 Apr 2024 17:42:00 GMT [source]
Norovirus outbreak sickens hundreds of cruise ship passengers, crew members
It sounds like a large number, but it amounts to just 0.02% (two one-hundredths of one percent) of cruisers throughout those 14 years, with the total number of cases decreasing from 4,507 in 2006 to 1,201 in 2019. Norovirus is the leading cause of outbreaks from contaminated food in the United States. Infected food workers are frequently the source of outbreaks in food-service settings, often by touching ready-to-eat foods, such as raw fruits and vegetables, with their bare hands before serving them.
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Hand hygiene is key to prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus — but the way you clean your hands matters, experts note. It has to be with soap and water, because alcohol-based hand sanitizers are not effective against norovirus. The most common symptoms of norovirus are vomiting, nausea, diarrhea and abdominal pain, Dr. Albert Ko, infectious disease physician and professor of public health, epidemiology and medicine at Yale School of Public Health, tells TODAY.com.
Why are there so many cruise norovirus reports on the news?
Norovirus can be especially challenging to control on cruise ships because of the close living quarters, shared dining areas, and rapid turnover of passengers. When the ship docks, norovirus can be brought on board in contaminated food or water or by passengers who were infected while ashore. Repeated outbreaks on consecutive cruises may also result from infected crew or environmental contamination. This is because norovirus can persist on surfaces for days or weeks and is resistant to many common disinfectants. Norovirus spreads easily in close quarters, such as those found on cruise ships.
It's easy to make norovirus case numbers sound alarming, but context matters. For example, 100 cases on a single ship might seem like a lot, but on a vessel like Oasis of the Seas, which carries more than 5,400 passengers, 100 cases are only about 2% of the onboard population. Infected passengers who don't wash their hands after coughing, sneezing or using the restroom are the reason those surfaces become contaminated in the first place.
How is norovirus spread?
Exposure to less than 100 norovirus particles can make someone sick, and infected people typically shed billions of particles, according to the CDC. It only takes a small number of virus particles for norovirus to spread, which is why norovirus causes so many explosive outbreaks, Ko previously told TODAY.com. In the vast majority of people, norovirus symptoms will last several days and resolve on their own. There is currently no vaccine against norovirus but there are steps you can take to prevent infection. Always make sure to wash your hands thoroughly, especially after using the bathroom or changing diapers; when eating, preparing, or handling food; and before giving yourself or someone else medicine. They ask passengers who feel ill during their cruises to report symptoms to the medical center and keep themselves isolated in their cabins.
Celebrity Cruises' Constellation norovirus outbreak - Business Insider
Celebrity Cruises' Constellation norovirus outbreak.
Posted: Mon, 15 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Norovirus illnesses can be more severe and occasionally even deadly in patients in hospitals or long-term care facilities when compared with healthy people. Norovirus is highly contagious and spreads when you touch a contaminated surface and then put your fingers in or near your mouth, such as when eating without washing your hands. It's also frequently spread through contaminated food, sometimes earning it the nickname "food poisoning," even though there are many pathogens that can cause foodborne illnesses. You might also hear it generically called a stomach bug or the stomach flu despite the fact that noroviruses are not the same as flu viruses. Passengers who experience norovirus symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea should notify staff and follow recommended precautions, per the CDC. Specifically, the medical staff from each cruise ship must submit a report with the number of ill passengers within 24 to 36 hours of its arrival at a U.S. port from a foreign port, even when no cases of gastrointestinal illness are present.
Food, water, and surfaces contaminated with norovirus can also cause outbreaks. "Health officials track illness on cruise ships. So outbreaks are found and reported more quickly on a cruise ship than on land," reads the CDC's facts page. Norovirus is the most common of several viruses that cause severe gastrointestinal illness or acute gastroenteritis. Symptoms may include diarrhea and vomiting, as well as abdominal cramping, headaches, muscle aches and fever — an unpleasant experience any time but especially when you're on vacation. The number of outbreaks in the first six months of 2023 is higher than the yearly total during every year since 2012, when there were 16 outbreaks on cruise ships reported to the CDC.
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If you'd like to check out the outbreak information, you can find a detailed list of ships that have had acute gastroenteritis outbreaks (many of which were caused by norovirus), listed by year, about halfway down the CDC's outbreak page. As part of the program, ships are required to adhere to stringent health and safety protocols that dictate everything from the cleaning of high-touch areas to how food is stored in freezers, refrigerators and galleys. On ships where outbreaks occur, the crew conducts a deep cleaning of the ship after passengers have disembarked and before the next sailing begins. In cases where outbreaks are particularly severe, subsequent sailings could be canceled to allow for more thorough sanitization.
Several weeks prior, a Celebrity Summit cruise ship reported an outbreak of norovirus that sickened more than 150 passengers and 25 crew members, per the CDC. Another popular cruise line, Royal Caribbean International, has reported four outbreaks since January. Food that may be contaminated with norovirus should be discarded immediately. Kitchen utensils, counters, and surfaces should be routinely cleaned and sanitized before preparing food to avoid foodborne illnesses. That means data for norovirus on cruise ships is more readily available than for other entities.
The CDC estimates only about 1% of all annual U.S. norovirus cases happen on cruise ships. The numbers are greatest in nursing homes, hospitals, schools and restaurants, which collectively account for about 91% of cases. You can use the NORS Dashboard to learn about outbreak reports of foodborne, waterborne, and enteric (gastrointestinal) diseases spread by person-to-person contact, environmental contamination, animal contact, and more. An excessive number of news reports exist for norovirus cases on ships, making it seem to the unsuspecting public that cruise vessels are dirty or you're likely to get sick if you sail.
“I think our travel frenzy after COVID is partially fueling this continued spread (of norovirus),” says Ostrosky. Be sure to carefully wash fruits and vegetables before preparing and eating them. Oysters and shellfish need to be thoroughly cooked before they are ready for consumption. Noroviruses are relatively resistant to heat and can survive temperatures as high as 145 degrees Fahrenheit. "When you are sick with norovirus, you can shed billions of virus particles in your vomit and poop. It only takes a few of these particles to make someone sick," the CDC explains.
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