More than 200 passengers hit by illness on New Orleans-based cruise

Associated Press ^ | 12/15/02 | AP

[antivenom]

NEW ORLEANS - About 229 guests on the cruise ship Carnival Conquest reported symptoms of a gastrointestinal illness on a voyage that ended Sunday, Carnival Cruise Lines said.

Miami-based Carnival said it was working with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine the cause of the outbreak.

But the company said it was treating the illness as a Norwalk-like virus that has recently hit other cruise ships and was cleaning and sanitizing the entire vessel.

The Conquest, which had 3,160 passengers, left New Orleans on Dec. 8

The next seven-day cruise to the western Caribbean was expected to depart Sunday evening. The company said it had informed the next group of voyagers about the outbreak and was offering refunds to any who did not want to sail.

[Political Junkie Too]

this happens all the time folks, it's simply getting more coverage than usual.

Even so, it does seem to be a potential "weak spot" in Homeland Security. I wonder if anyone is checking out the ports of call regardless of whether something happened there or not. Terrorist cells are in Indonesia and the Phillipines, which means that they are comfortable in a tropical island environment.

At the airports, they post travel advisories on the security troubled airports around the world. Perhaps it's time to do similar things for cruise ports-of-call?

-PJ

[Luis Gonzalez]

How about live sport events? Or how about the Olympic Games? Or maybe large concerts? Or parades? Or High School football games? Or a beach in the summer? Or Disney World? Or...

[Political Junkie Too]

I'm not necessarily talking about hitting events, such as sports games or cruise ships. I'm talking about setting up cells in areas close to Americans where security might be lax.

-PJ

[Luis Gonzalez]

Homeland security is just that, security here, not security for Americans throughout the world.

[antivenom]

Yes...the crew get sick too...

[dutchess]

We had an outbreak of this "virus" last year. A local deli catered a big teachers meeting a county over plus a local focus group of "all the heavy hitters" about a downtown development plan. The only reason it was caught was a whole school system was shut down because of so many sick teachers plus all the "heavy hitters in our town. (we all ate Wed. lunch...gut sick 48 hours later)....Most of us who were sick thought it was the flu thing, compared notes (AND IT WAS UGLY!) ...but never dotted the line until the health department got ahold of it.

It's ugly..the virus or baccteria comes from infected feces...and can spread from food, utinsels...door knobs...it all. I'm weighting judgement on this one. As many people are on a contained ship...I can see how this can happen innocently...on the other hand....what a great way to fear cruisers...on the other hand......we all kind of get sick now and then AND JUST REMEMBER TO WASH YOUR HANDS!!!!

[concerned about politics]

I don't think so. Why isn't this happening on the west coast?

So far, most of the terrorism has been on the East coast. Terrorists arrested around NY, NJ, Florida...

[ClancyJ]

Looks like a lot of foreigners may not understand the "wash your hands before returning to work" rule.

What a gross thought - almost like we don't have more sanitary facilities with sinks available.

[Petronski]

The question is, how are they getting this virus on these ships?

Just book passage...boom, you're on the cruise.

[babble-on]

Thank goodness someone made this point. Hysteria is certainly enough to cause nausea. If someone next to you says he's about to vomit, doesn't it make you want to vomit? Plus, I wonder if these people get refunds for their cruises? I might start to feel sick about day 4.5 of a 5 day cruise if I thought there was a refund in it for me? I vote that this is mass hysteria combined with people hoping for refunds or lawsuits.

[Grassontop]

So far, most of the terrorism has been on the East coast. Terrorists arrested around NY, NJ, Florida...

This could be a way for "hollywood" to make a movie, and give the terrorist money to support their causes, since hollywood seems not to respect President Bush! Just my own opinion of the situation. Grassontop

[Mixer]

Yes....you must remember the threads here on FR about the terrorists manual stating they were going to poisen water and food supplies. This has been the third incident I can think of since that threat was made.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

I agree this is too much. NO WAY could this many chefs on this many different ships cook this badly.

Notice, even the past cases of this over the weeks never did they say all the folks did or didn't eat the same food/dish/meal.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

LOL

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

Good point but these folks are trained to cook and serve 5 course meals and I am sure the ships/meats/poultry get inspected.

[Almondjoy]

If you really think about what's going on here is this..... People are starting to read about the "illness".. because of 9/11.. these reported articles.. and people's normal reporting of having stomach pains. This is resulting in more people coming forward with any little tiny seasickness.. response to seafood.. or having too much to drink. People who are going on these cruises tend to have more stress..w hich is why they are going on them in the first place and stress is a major cause of "bloating" or gas.

[stilts]

I beleive that some of the cruises had incidents of the virus prior to any ports of call.

An alternative evil scenario is as follows: many of the cruises book people on the same flights (or have charters) to get them from Europe to the embarkation point. Let's assume that one of these planes is leaving from Heathrow. A terrorist gets on a domestic flight in the UK that disembarks in Heathrow an hour before the "cruise" flight leaves. The terrorist then goes to the boarding area and spreads some aerosol very discreetly. These folks then climb on a plane and sit together closely as the air ciruculates and the virus spreads. By the time they land in Miami there are a bunch of carriers who all then climb on a boat and further spread the infection. At the end of the cruise the boat load then disembark and return to points all over the western world where they further spread the virus.

In this scenario the Terrorist doesn't have to actually smuggle anything into the US or approach a boat that is being heavily watched.

[Chemnitz]

On every ship? Seems awfully coordinated to me.