JAMM AQUINO /
ALEXANDRE DA SILVA /
Posted on 02/09/2007 5:49:57 AM PST by Calpernia
Passengers and crew members aboard a cruise ship in which hundreds fell ill with a highly contagious stomach flu arrived at Honolulu Harbor early yesterday saying the spread of the virus had slowed.
The Queen Elizabeth 2, on a stop here from San Francisco, docked at Pier 2B about 7 a.m. When the ship left the mainland Wednesday night, only six guests were still being treated on board for norovirus, a gastrointestinal illness.
"It was not that bad," said Leonard Ciupak, 54, a Kahala resident who got sick but improved after taking some medicine.
"You wake up and, obviously, you have to make it to the bathroom and you get real dehydrated," added Ciupak, a television manager at the 963-foot vessel. "You have aches and pains for about a day, and then you are fine."
The QE2, operated by the Valencia, Calif.-based Cunard Line, departed Jan. 8 from New York on the first leg of its 106-day trip around the world. The Centers for Disease Control reported 276 passengers and 28 crew members had come down with the virus by the time the ship docked Wednesday in San Francisco for a regularly scheduled stop, though only four passengers remained sick.
CDC officials said they would meet with the ship's doctor yesterday. Cunard spokesman Brian O'Connor said enhanced sanitation measures led to a rapid decrease in the number of cases.
"We have been informed that norovirus is currently circulating widely throughout North America and the United Kingdom, and we suspect the illness was inadvertently brought on board by embarking passengers," O'Connor said.
Security officials at Honolulu Harbor directed passengers of the Queen Elizabeth 2 yesterday after the vessel docked at Honolulu Harbor.
Yesterday, some passengers, who were scheduled to re-board the vessel at about 9:30 p.m., declined to be interviewed and quickly left in cabs or in tour vans to enjoy the island for the day.
Janice Okubo, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, said the outbreak seemed to be under control.
"Many of the people were going to be well by the time they reached Hawaii," she said.
While the vessel was being fumigated on the mainland, Stan and Leone Pollard, a Burlingame, Calif., couple, said they got free tours of a farmer's market and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
"It was very, very serious," Stan Pollard said about the outbreak, noting that amenities like peanuts stopped being served. "They sanitized the complete ship. Now it seems to be fine, because they started serving snacks at the cocktail lounge."
The CDC boarded the QE2 on Jan. 19 in Acapulco, Mexico, to investigate the infections, which affected nearly 17 percent of the ship's 1,652 passengers, a particularly high percentage. The agency defines an outbreak as an illness that affects more than 3 percent of a ship's passengers.
Investigators said enhanced sanitation measures such as disinfecting casino chips, confining sick guests to their rooms and halting self-service at the ship's buffet were working.
The scare did not spoil the trip for June McRoberts, who boarded the vessel Jan. 10 at Fort Lauderdale, Fla. In fact, the Batavia, Ill., resident already signed up for another cruise with the company for next year, this time with the ship Queen Victoria.
"It was blown up a lot bigger than it really was," said McRoberts, who was met at the harbor by friend Ruth Johnsen, also a Chicago resident, who happens to be in the island visiting her daughter.
The two planned to see Pearl Harbor and Waikiki before McRoberts returned to board the ship, which was scheduled to leave for Lahaina last night. After its Maui stop, the QE2 heads to Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia.
My parents are on this ship.
Having served in the Navy on submarines I can verify #4 since we had someone catch some random disease and we were all prescribed some powerful antibiotic that made you feel like your stomach was being ripped out for purely preventative reasons (and most of our crew faked taking it because of that). It also isn't uncommon to do other mass preventative medical maintenance such as penicillin shots in the bottoms during boot camp (which still gives me the shivers thinking about it).
Illegal immigrants are statistically higher in the Travel and tourism industry. I would combine that factor with your #4 and rank it under health concern.
http://www.comlinks.com/polintel/pi060410.htm
Illegal Immigration and Tourism
I have heard that reason before, but it only makes sense if the illegal immigrants were still living in a diseased area (which doesn't make sense if they are illegal immigrants since by definition they would be living in the US which doesn't really have any major places with high disease rates). When they leave the area their incidence of disease will drop to the levels of the area they move to (and I'll have to look for the reference I saw on that). Whether they spend a lot of time in places with high rates of disease when they start working for the cruise ship companies is something I do not know but many cruise ships may have native workers from outside the US that may live in places with less than sanitary conditions. I would assume they don't since the cruise ships tend to visit the nice areas that tourists want to go. But then again, many of the workers on cruise ships wouldn't be able to afford to live in those areas.
I don't know. What you say makes sense; but it tends to hold true in the food industry also.
Actually, it isn't just now. Let me look for the links and I'll post them. We have threads on this.
Even better. The CDC has a nice chart from 1994-2007 here:
http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/GIlist.htm
Wasn't one of these outbreaks a couple of years ago attributed to the on board water supply? That would certainly explain how it can spread so rapidly and efficiently.
The Olive Garden that was shut down a few weeks ago in Indy was from a norovirus. I don't recall if they every figured out the source.
See that link I found at post 9. It is amazing.
Interesting link at post 9.
Gives the appearance that "if you cruise you ooze.."
More cruises or more illness you suppose?
I can't imagine that we have more cruises then MIL vessels. Look at what burzum posted. I've never heard of coast guard or navy having troubles like this. Have you Big Look?
Dude, you could not PAY me to get on a cruise ship. Got to be one of the nastiest places on Earth/Sea.
Group sex and Orgies
Well, chalk up one for the military for contributing to the increase of drug-resistant bacteria. I thought prophylactic antibiotics were a no-no now.
Media bias.
I've been practicing Infectious Diseases for twenty-five years, and during that entire time cruise ship outbreaks of viral (mostly) diarrhea have been common.
This worldwide norovirus epidemic is a little unusual, but if you are worried about intestinal infections, cruise ships have never been a good choice.
Thanks.
You saw that link at post 9? It is amazing.
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