....any cruise.


Royal Caribbean Cruisers Ill With Apparent Norovirus
By GENEVIEVE SHAW BROWN
March 8, 2013—

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ABC News

More Than 100 Ill With Norovirus on Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas

A Royal Caribbean cruise ship has returned to port with more than 100
passengers sickened by a stomach illness thought to be norovirus.

Vision of the Seas returned to Port Everglades, Fla., after an 11-night
Caribbean cruise. One hundred five passengers and three crew members
fell ill, the cruise line said. There were 1,991 guests and 772 crew
members on board.

The ship returned as scheduled and ill passengers responded well to
over-the-counter medication being administered on board the ship, Royal
Caribbean International said.

The Centers for Disease Control, which tracks norovirus outbreaks on its
website, did not yet have a record of the incident.

In a statement to ABC News, the cruise line said, "At Royal Caribbean
International, we have high health standards for all our guests and
crew. During the sailing, we conduct enhanced cleaning on board the ship
to help prevent the spread of the illness. Additionally, when Vision of
the Seas arrived to Port Everglades, Fla., today, we conducted an
extensive and thorough sanitizing onboard the ship and within the cruise
terminal to help prevent any illness from affecting the subsequent sailing."

Vision of the Seas just concluded an 11-night Caribbean sailing that
included port calls to Basseterre, St. Kitts; Roseau, Dominica;
Bridgetown, Barbados; St. George's, Grenada; Kraledijk, Bonaire; and
Oranjestad, Aruba.

According to the CDC website , "Norovirus is a very contagious virus.
You can get norovirus from an infected person, contaminated food or
water, or by touching contaminated surfaces. The virus causes your
stomach or intestines or both to get inflamed (acute gastroenteritis).
This leads you to have stomach pain, nausea, and diarrhea and to throw up."

Because of the close quarters on a cruise ship, norovirus tends to
spread quickly.

The ship was scheduled to depart on its next voyage late Friday
afternoon. In an email to passengers scheduled to depart on today's
Vision of the Seas cruise, the cruise line said, "We will conduct
enhanced sanitizing onboard the ship and within the terminal to help
prevent any illness from affecting your cruise."

The last recorded outbreak on a cruise line was in December 2012 on
Cunard's Queen Mary 2. The CDC reported 194 passengers and 11 crew
reported fell ill during the voyage. The same month, there was a
norovirus outbreak on another luxury cruise ship: The Emerald Princess.
In that case, five percent of all passengers -- 166, plus 30 crew --
fell ill on the sailing.


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