Posted on 12/17/2017 7:49:19 AM PST by BenLurkin
During the five-night cruise, 332 cases of the illness were reported, Owen Torres, a spokesman for Royal Caribbean told CNN in a statement. He stressed that it was a small percentage — 5.99 percent — of the more than 5,000 passengers and crew onboard the ship, Independence of the Seas.
“Those affected by the short-lived illness were treated by our ship’s doctors with over-the-counter medication,” Torres said, “and we hope all our guests feel better quickly.”
It is not known what caused the illness.
“It was just terrifying,” Tracy Flores, a passenger whose 15-year-old son came down with the illness, told CNN affiliate WPLG Saturday. “Just the amount of people that were coming in at the same time with vomiting and diarrhea and just looked ghastly.”
WPLG reported that some passengers who were disembarking Saturday in Port Everglades, Florida, believed the number of passengers who got sick was higher than what Royal Caribbean said.
“We talked to plenty of people who said that they were too sick to even make it down to the (ship’s) medical facility,” passenger Marsha Homuska told CNN affiliate WSVN.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
I’m glad somebody picked me up on that. Thank you for that and many other very entertaining posts. Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you, too.
Passengers who did not get sick will be jumping on the upcoming class action lawsuit. In these cases many of those who get sick are actually suffering from close quarters hysteria. It’s all in their heads.
“They all had the fish.
With a side order of excrement. “
Ugandan cooks.
Going on a cruise is not the last thing on my bucket list of things I want to do. It’s not even on the list.
Now all you have to do to catch Latin American bugs is visit our big cities.
Schools shut down during winter flu outbreaks due to close quarters. With cruise ships, it’s probably due to tainted crab dip.
Depends on the cruise. We’ve been ones in Europe that were fine; NCL and the like, not so much.
Because it's safer for the reputation of the cruise line to issue the antibiotic and blame it on Noro and ease the mind of the sick passenger knowing they are going to be OK in the next several days anyway rather than admit to bacterial contamination that they know the antibiotic is going to knock out. And if it is bacterial contamination, that passenger is going to be ill for the rest of the cruise if not treated.
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ALL “closed environments” are susceptible to this spreading like wildfire. It has in our schools.
The big thing with ships is:
a) truly contained and closed environment - people are there all day and night together with only a little outlet to outside world. Schools not as bad, e.g., because people aren’t there at night; shops not as bad as any because it’s constant in and out with all kinds of different people, not the same people bringing something from home.
b) exposure to 3rd-world hellholes. I never understand why people think these places are “paradise”. Many are beautiful for the nature, but the people stink it up with their crap, literally and figuratively.
I'm a pediatric ER nurse, and I can tell you with absolute authority that schools are not safe from this. Last winter three public schools in my area were shut down because of norovirus outbreaks and had to be "sanitized". It was bad.
We had rooms with two, three, and sometimes four or five siblings (and sometimes their parents who became symptomatic) being treated for the bug. It was just bloody awful.
If the medicos on that boat were improperly prescribing anti-biotics they ought to be brought before a medical board.
I can’t believe no-one got it, or posted the pix of Leslie Nielson.
How many people do you know who have gone to the doctor for a bad cold and were prescribed an antibiotic?
We had rooms with two, three, and sometimes four or five siblings (and sometimes their parents who became symptomatic) being treated for the bug. It was just bloody awful.
Two years ago right before Christmas, my nephew’s two kids came down with a norovirus as has had about half their classmates and most of the kids in their neighborhood, even those who went to other schools, but all the schools were having outbreaks. My nephew’s wife got it but he didn’t. My nieces’ kids at their school seemed to have avoided it. I’d been at my nephew’s house just before their kids got sick but as nearly a week had gone by with no symptoms, I thought I was in the clear.
But I went to my niece’s house for Christmas dinner. I had felt fine all day but after dinner started feeling queasy and flushed, a bit dizzy, out of sorts. I went home not long later and laid down on the couch, was watching a Christmas movie on TV when all of a sudden…well let’s say it wasn’t pretty, sudden violent projectile vomit all over me, my couch, my coffee table, the carpet, and nothing like being sick as a dog and living alone and having to try to clean up.. then came the…well I spent the next several hours in the bathroom, stuff now coming out of both ends.
I called my niece to let her know and for the next two days she and her kids were fine, then her husband got sick, then their four kids and a week later, it finally hit her. Nasty stuff and highly contagious.
Already did 26 cruises, and 2 or 3 more coming up in 2018.
Never had a single problem on any of the cruises, which included Alaska (4 or 5), Mediterranean (2 weeks), West coast of Mexico (5 or 6), Caribbean (remaining others).
Note that Cruises are required to report outbreaks. Restaurants are not required to report. Incidences in restaurants in US are most likely 1000 times more on cruises from American ports. Myself have experienced intestinal problems many times eating in restaurants. But never on any of the the 26 cruises.
Cubans.
They’ve got this ray machine thing that they point at the ships and it gives people The Fidel Farts and The Raul Runs.
I have lots of family in to docs. None have gotten an antibiotic for a viral illness, not for many years. I do know a person who recently had a serious bacterial infection and couldn’t get a scrip for an antibiotic until the he developed sepsis.
From experience of my 26 previous cruises, I can suggest that you avoid the buffet restaurants on ship, and choose only waiter service sit down restaurants.
The buffets have all adults and children touching the food, and food sits there for hours. Where as in dining room, we always get freshly prepared warm food.
In general, the food staff on ships are much more professional than you will find in family priced American restaurants, in terms of sanitary practices.
...a spokesman for Royal Caribbean told CNN in a statement... Those affected by the short-lived illness were treated by our ship’s doctors with over-the-counter medication...
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