Cruises are seeing decades-high levels of gastrointestinal illness aboard in confined, risky spaces
By Annika Inampudi
and Ignacio Gonzalez
/ Bloomberg
Stomach bugs on cruise ships hit a nearly two-decade high as more people than ever board the vessels, underscoring how easily viruses spread on contained voyages.While cruises are in a global spotlight after a rare hantavirus outbreak killed three people on a cruise ship last month, mild gastrointestinal illnesses are far more common on ships. They have risen for the last four years to the highest since 2007, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vessel Sanitation Program. The data tracks ships with 13 or more passengers with foreign itineraries that dock at one or more US ports.The Vessel Sanitation Program tracks the number of gastrointestinal outbreaks that cruise ships report every year, defined as situations when more than 3 percent of people on board have some kind of stomach illness.
