perdidobay
<font color=green>Will work for travel ;-)<br><fon
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2001
Cleanings help limit cruise-line illnesses
By Robert Johnson | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted December 13, 2002
Cruise ships' efforts to disinfect themselves are working even though 25 more cases of gastrointestinal illness have broken out this week on the Disney Cruise Line ship Magic, the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
"I think it's absolutely safe to go on cruises," said David Forney, chief of the CDC's vessel-sanitation unit. "Ideally, we would like to say there are no illnesses on the ships, but that's just not the case."
More than 1,000 passengers on ships sailing out of three Florida ports have come down with the vomiting and diarrhea associated with Norwalk virus during the past month.
The Magic was taken out of service for a week on Nov. 30 after a virus sickened hundreds of passengers on two earlier trips out of Port Canaveral. A seven-day cruise was canceled to clear the ship of passengers and crew and leave time for a more thorough cleaning.
Hundreds of other passengers became sick aboard Holland America Line's Amsterdam, Carnival Cruise Lines' Fascination and P&O Cruises' Oceana, all sailing out of South Florida.
The CDC on Thursday released figures indicating that, although diarrhea outbreaks on cruise ships have declined dramatically since the late 1970s, they may have risen this year compared with a year earlier.
There were 27 outbreaks for every 100,000 passenger-days in the 1970s, compared with only 3.7 outbreaks from 1996 to 2000. A passenger-day is one passenger on a cruise ship for one day.
CDC officials said their 2001-02 data haven't been converted to passenger-day figures yet. But while last year there were seven outbreaks on U.S. cruise ships, including four confirmed as Norwalk virus, this year there have been 21 outbreaks, including nine confirmed as Norwalk.
They said the two-dozen illnesses reported on Magic's current cruise are to be expected when any large cruise ship goes to sea with thousands of people.
"We'd like the number to be zero, but it's not surprising given what's happening across the globe," Disney Cruise Line spokesman Mark Jaronski said. "All the cruise lines are doing what they can, but it's a stomach bug and, as the CDC said, it's everywhere they look."
He said the Magic's next cruise, which begins Saturday, is close to fully booked, with more than 2,300 passengers.
Among the precautions taken after the illnesses on the Magic earlier this month: Buffets that normally are self-serve are staffed with servers wearing plastic gloves, Jaronski said.
Emelia Polin, a New Jersey mother who was on this week's Magic cruise, was put ashore at her request in the Cayman Islands on Tuesday after one of her two daughters vomited.
"Disney is paranoid," she said. "They ordered us to keep one of our girls in our room for 72 hours after she vomited once, and we took her to the infirmary."
When Polin protested the quarantine, Disney officials gave her the option of an early departure and partial refund, Jaronski said. Disney also paid for airline tickets home for the family.
Jaronski said the 72-hour quarantine is a CDC policy, not Disney's.
"Only the sick child was required to stay in the room," he said. When a guest is quarantined, nurses periodically phone the room to check on the patient and will visit if further care is required, he added.
The last part about the woman who got off in the Caymens upsets me some....why would Disney expect her to continue on a cruise with one daughter under 72 hour lockdown just because she threw up once? What's she supposed to do? Leave that child alone with a "nurse occasionally phoning in" ??????? Or try to keep the other child locked up in the room and try to keep it happy? If this is what they do to you when you see the ship's doctor, I can see this causing people trying to keep their illness quiet.... I know it's a no-win situation all around, it isn't Disney's rule, but still? Was it paranoid on Disney's part?
By Robert Johnson | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted December 13, 2002
Cruise ships' efforts to disinfect themselves are working even though 25 more cases of gastrointestinal illness have broken out this week on the Disney Cruise Line ship Magic, the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
"I think it's absolutely safe to go on cruises," said David Forney, chief of the CDC's vessel-sanitation unit. "Ideally, we would like to say there are no illnesses on the ships, but that's just not the case."
More than 1,000 passengers on ships sailing out of three Florida ports have come down with the vomiting and diarrhea associated with Norwalk virus during the past month.
The Magic was taken out of service for a week on Nov. 30 after a virus sickened hundreds of passengers on two earlier trips out of Port Canaveral. A seven-day cruise was canceled to clear the ship of passengers and crew and leave time for a more thorough cleaning.
Hundreds of other passengers became sick aboard Holland America Line's Amsterdam, Carnival Cruise Lines' Fascination and P&O Cruises' Oceana, all sailing out of South Florida.
The CDC on Thursday released figures indicating that, although diarrhea outbreaks on cruise ships have declined dramatically since the late 1970s, they may have risen this year compared with a year earlier.
There were 27 outbreaks for every 100,000 passenger-days in the 1970s, compared with only 3.7 outbreaks from 1996 to 2000. A passenger-day is one passenger on a cruise ship for one day.
CDC officials said their 2001-02 data haven't been converted to passenger-day figures yet. But while last year there were seven outbreaks on U.S. cruise ships, including four confirmed as Norwalk virus, this year there have been 21 outbreaks, including nine confirmed as Norwalk.
They said the two-dozen illnesses reported on Magic's current cruise are to be expected when any large cruise ship goes to sea with thousands of people.
"We'd like the number to be zero, but it's not surprising given what's happening across the globe," Disney Cruise Line spokesman Mark Jaronski said. "All the cruise lines are doing what they can, but it's a stomach bug and, as the CDC said, it's everywhere they look."
He said the Magic's next cruise, which begins Saturday, is close to fully booked, with more than 2,300 passengers.
Among the precautions taken after the illnesses on the Magic earlier this month: Buffets that normally are self-serve are staffed with servers wearing plastic gloves, Jaronski said.
Emelia Polin, a New Jersey mother who was on this week's Magic cruise, was put ashore at her request in the Cayman Islands on Tuesday after one of her two daughters vomited.
"Disney is paranoid," she said. "They ordered us to keep one of our girls in our room for 72 hours after she vomited once, and we took her to the infirmary."
When Polin protested the quarantine, Disney officials gave her the option of an early departure and partial refund, Jaronski said. Disney also paid for airline tickets home for the family.
Jaronski said the 72-hour quarantine is a CDC policy, not Disney's.
"Only the sick child was required to stay in the room," he said. When a guest is quarantined, nurses periodically phone the room to check on the patient and will visit if further care is required, he added.
The last part about the woman who got off in the Caymens upsets me some....why would Disney expect her to continue on a cruise with one daughter under 72 hour lockdown just because she threw up once? What's she supposed to do? Leave that child alone with a "nurse occasionally phoning in" ??????? Or try to keep the other child locked up in the room and try to keep it happy? If this is what they do to you when you see the ship's doctor, I can see this causing people trying to keep their illness quiet.... I know it's a no-win situation all around, it isn't Disney's rule, but still? Was it paranoid on Disney's part?
