Passengers Sickened On Norwegian Cruise Line Ship Norovirus Suspected In Some Illnesses
POSTED: 7:10 pm EDT April 30, 2004 UPDATED: 7:19 pm EDT April 30, 2004
PHILADELPHIA -- What was supposed to be the vacation of a lifetime is turning out to be a nightmare for many Delaware Valley passengers.
A Norwegian Crown cruise ship left Philadelphia last Sunday bound for Bermuda. The ship is expected to return this weekend, but many of the passengers will not be as healthy as they were when they started their journey.
People started getting sick within days of shoving off. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is testing the ship to confirm their suspicion that the passengers were sickened by the Norovirus, formerly known as the Norwalk virus.
But that wasn't the only problem on the ship. Paul and Becky Montini were among those affected by problems on the ship.
"He had been sick and having headaches from almost the first that they went out and he went down to the infirmary Monday night or Tuesday morning, I think. There was about 50 or 60 people there, he said," said Helene Montini, Paul's sister.
Montini called his family Tuesday from the Norwegian Crown. Montini said people were sick, had been confined to their cabins and were put up in hotel rooms once they got to Bermuda. Montini's sister said he was most concerned about his pregnant wife, Becky.
"There was a very foul odor and it smelled like fuel -- just the headaches, the constant headaches. His wife is pregnant -- she's five-months pregnant," Helene Montini said.
Norwegian Cruise Line says, and the CDC confirms, that 33 passengers and two crewmembers came down with gastrointestinal problems. The CDC suspects the passenger were infected with the Norovirus, which cause vomiting and diarrhea for up to 48 hours.
Paul's problem wasn't viral. He suffered severe headaches from fumes in his cabin. Norwegian Cruise Lines said damage to a fuel ventilator affected 50 cabins and 63 passengers suffered headaches and nausea. Three of those passengers received medical treatment.
Norwegian Cruise Lines has compensated cooperating passengers.
A CDC representative said Norovirus is one of the most common causes of gastrointestinal problems. It shows up everywhere from schools to day cares. You usually only hear about it on cruise lines because they are required to report it.......
Shiveluch Volcano Active Again (Russia)
16:46 2004-04-30
Ash has been ejected 2,000-5,000 meters into the air from the crater of the Shiveluch volcano in Kamchatka (peninsula in Russia's Far East).
The Kamchatka Seismologic Expedition told RIA Novosti on Friday that the most powerful ejection of ash (over 5,000 meters in the air) occurred at 7:24 a.m. local time and was accompanied by an earthquake that lasted five and a half minutes. The Alaskan Volcanological Observatory provided satellite photographs that clearly show an ash trail stretching over 40 kilometers to the northeast.
Seismic stations registered series of earthquakes and volcanic tremors near the active dome.
After a long period of quiet, the activity of the northernmost active volcano of Kamchatka (Shiveluch is 3,283 meters tall) increased in January 2004.
Currently, the volcano presents no threat to the populated areas of the peninsula. Ash ejections and trails do seriously threaten aviation, as particles of volcanic ash may cause malfunctions in airplane turbines. Therefore, sudden ejections complicate air navigation. Link
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Volcano Raises Burning Questions (New Guinea)
10:08 AM Apr. 29, 2004 PT
Lava has begun flowing from a dormant volcano on Papua New Guinea's island of Bougainville in the South Pacific, raising concerns for the safety of nearby villages, officials said Thursday.
Volcanologists have flown to Mount Bagana in central Bougainville to inspect the volcano in an effort to assess whether the lava flow indicates a possible eruption, said an emergency service official in the country's capital, Port Moresby.
Villagers in the area reported that lava had begun flowing from the mountain, the official said. The nearest known village is Torokina, about five miles from 5,740-foot Mount Bagana. Link
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Taiwan Quake Kills Two May 1, 2004 - 10:05PM
Two people died when an earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale rocked Taiwan, officials said.
The victims were found in a van, crushed by a large rock rolling down a mountain at the Taroko Gorge, a popular tourist spot in eastern Hualien County, according to officials at the county's fire department.
The tremor hit at 3:56 pm (1756 AEST) with an epicentre 7.4 kms west of Hsincheng in Hualien and 17.8 kms underground, according to the Seismology Centre.
Taiwan, lying near the junction of two tectonic plates, is prone to earthquakes. The island suffered its worst in a century on September 21, 1999, when a quake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck central Taiwan, leaving 2,400 people dead. A powerful quake with a magnitude of 6.6 shook Taiwan on December 10, 2003, but caused only minor injuries and damage in some southern cities. Link
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Comets
Excerpted......Total lunar eclipses usually occur every couple of years. But planetary dynamics mean that we are right in a splurge of them: there were two in 2003 and there will be a fourth on Oct. 28.
Meanwhile, two major comets, both of them spotted only within the last few years, will be sliding into position for good viewing from Earth as they race past us on their elliptical track around the sun.
They are C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) and C/2002 T7 (LINEAR), whose strange names are derived from their discoverers; two U.S. robot telescopes that scour the heavens for space rocks. Comets have long been considered the harbingers of great events, of famine, earthquakes, war, the death and birth of kings.
Astrophysicists find them just as fascinating, as the primitive material of frozen gas, dust and rock left from the building of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago. The last comet to be visible to the naked eye from Earth was Hale-Bopp, which put on a spectacular show in 1997.
Comet NEAT will be at its closest on May 6, coming within 48,020,000 kilometers (30,013,000 miles) of Earth, while LINEAR's nearest approach will be on May 19, at 39,790,000 kms (24,870,000 miles).
These are the preludes for June 8, when Venus, the solar system's second planet, will be directly aligned between the Earth and the sun. Venus will be visible as a tiny black dot crawling over the face of the sun and for that reason, proper eye protection is an absolute must. "This 'Venus Transit' happened last time in 1882," said Richard West of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). "It now provides a vast public in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia the opportunity for a unique experience." Link