The diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach pain causing illness is understood to have spread on the luxury cruise ship during the Caribbean leg of the tour as the Queen Mary 2 prepares to dock in the UK
A luxury cruise liner with norovirus-stricken passengers is heading for a UK port. The Queen Mary 2’s voyage around New York and the Caribbean will come to an end on Sunday in Southampton – the same port it started the 29-day trip.
There are 224 passengers and 17 crew members infected with the vomiting bug on board. The diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach pain causing illness is understood to have spread on the ship during the Caribbean leg of the tour.
Passengers and crew members started falling ill just 10 days into the voyage, when cruise chiefs raised the alarm with the US Center for Disease Control (CDC). The government agency said the Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) was alerted after the virus spread through nearly 9% of the 2,538 passengers aboard.
The VSP said its has advised crew members aboard the ship to increase “cleaning and disinfection procedures according to their outbreak prevention and response plan”, reports Mirror.
Crew were also asked to collect “stool specimens from gastrointestinal illness cases for testing” as passengers were isolated.
The CDC lists norovirus as “the leading cause of vomiting and diarrhoea” in the US, and warns that people typically develop symptoms 12 to 48 hours after exposure to the brutal bug.
Once they develop, people experience diarrhoea, vomiting, nausea and stomach pain, alongside a fever, headache and body aches.
By the time the vessel returns to the UK, most people currently suffering from the bug will likely find their symptoms have improved significantly. They typically last only a few days, but the risk to the rest of the public and those not yet infected remains, as sufferers can remain contagious to up to 14 days.
Some people may also develop a secondary infection like gastroenteritis, categorised by many of the same symptoms as norovirus.
The gastrointestinal illness outbreak is the 12th this year on a cruise calling to US ports, with at least 10 of the other cases having been caused by norovirus, which is ultra contagious.
The number is already close to the total for all of 2924, when there were reports of 16 GI illness outbreaks. The year prior, there were slightly fewer, just 14 in total.
The Daily Star has asked Cunard Cruises for comment.
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