A suspected norovirus outbreak was implicated in gastrointestinal illness outbreak onboard Princess Cruises’ Coral Princess ship, according to federal health officials.
The 10-day cruise arrived in Fort Lauderdale Saturday and according to CDC, 157 of the 2,016 (7.79%) passengers and 25 of the 881 (2.84 %) crew were sickened presenting the symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea.
In response to the outbreak, Princess Cruises and the crew aboard the ship reported the following actions: Increased cleaning and disinfection procedures according to their outbreak prevention and response plan, collected stool specimens from passenger and crew gastrointestinal illness cases for testing and made twice daily reports of gastrointestinal illness cases to the Vessel Sanitation Program.
A CDC Vessel Sanitation Program environmental health officer boarded the ship in Ft. Lauderdale on March 18 to conduct an environmental health assessment and evaluate the outbreak and response activities.
Norovirus is a highly contagious viral illness that often goes by other names, such as viral gastroenteritis, stomach flu, and food poisoning. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and some stomach cramping. Sometimes people additionally have a low-grade fever, chills,headache, muscle aches, and a general sense of tiredness. In most people, the illness is self-limiting with symptoms lasting for about 1 or 2 days. In general, children experience more vomiting than adults do.