More than 200 cruise ship passengers became ill with vomiting and diarrhea on board two separate Royal Caribbean cruise ships bound for San Diego, it emerged on Tuesday.
Health officials are investigating what caused the outbreaks aboard the ships bound for California, both owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited. The ships docked on Monday and Tuesday in San Diego.
Celebrity Cruises reported 106 sick passengers on board the Celebrity Infinity, which arrived on Monday in California. The ill vacationers accounted for 5% of the 2,117 travelers on board. Six of the more than 900 crew members were also sick.
Epidemiologists from the Centers for Disease Control are investigating the outbreak, and collected eight stool samples on board. Crews are tightening sanitation and disinfection procedures.
Crew members are planning a “staged disembarkation” to avoid exposing healthy passengers to sick ones, potentially contaminating them with the infectious stomach virus.
Separately, on board the Royal Caribbean ship Legend of the Seas, 114 of the ship’s 1,763 passengers (6.5%) came down with an unknown gastrointestinal illness.
That ship is also being inspected by an epidemiologist from the CDC. Stool samples are being collected and the crew are disinfecting and cleaning the ship. Two of the crew were reported to be sick.
Health officials track outbreaks of norovirus aboard cruise ships, reporting around one dozen outbreaks each year.
The virus causes unpleasant gastrointestinal inflammation, which leads to nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. It can be spread through water, food or between people.
Norovirus is the most common food-borne illness in the United States. The virus strikes up to 21 million people each year in the US.
