Foodborne Illness On Cruise Ships

GI outbreaks on cruise ships from food and water sources have also been associated with Salmonella spp enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli Shigella spp Clostridium perfringens and Cyclospora cayetanensis.

Foodborne illness on cruise ships. Norovirus is often branded as cruise ship virus simply because on ships health officials are required to report every gastrointestinal illness incident. 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. Salmonella spp were most frequently associated with outbreaks.

In 2016 the CDC posted information on 13 foodborne illness outbreaks on cruise ships. Are on ships under VSP jurisdiction see about VSP. Are on voyages where 3 or more of passengers or crew report symptoms of gastrointestinal illness to the ships medical staff.

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. ObjectiveFoodborne disease outbreaks on ships are of concern because of their potentially serious health consequences for passengers and crew and high costs to the industry. Almost 200 people on one of the worlds largest cruise ships are sick with what public health officials say appears to be a foodborne illness from the boats bottomless buffet.

Daniels NA Neimann J Karpati et al. The authors conducted. Are on ships carrying 100 or more passengers.

This means Norovirus outbreaks are reported more quickly on ships than on land. The cause was undetermined in one outbreak in 2016. 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.

Seafood cocktail was implicated in 8 of 13 documented food-borne outbreaks. 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. Coli Hepatitis Listeria Shigella Rotavirus.