A gastrointestinal illness outbreak aboard the Holland America Line (HAL) Koningsdam cruise ship has sickened 110 passengers and crew members, in keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC discovered that 98 of two,522 (3.89%) visitors and 12 of 961 (1.25%) crew member have develop into ailing with signs of diarrhea and vomiting through the present cruise on the HAL ship which started its voyage on February 17, 2024.

Stool samples examined by the CDC have been discovered to include norovirus.

That is the third illness outbreak this 12 months involving a cruise ship. The Movie star Constellation and Cunard’s Queen Victoria beforehand experiencing norovirus outbreaks which sickened 100 and 154 folks respectively. There have been fourteen gastrointestinal outbreaks in 2023, all attributable to norovirus

Each the CDC and the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) have concluded that the commonest causes of norovirus outbreaks in contaminated meals or water. The frequent response of a cruise line in response to a gastrointestinal outbreak is guilty the passengers and indicate that the shipborne sickness was attributable to passengers failing to clean their palms. However a visitor can wash their palms and use hand sanitizers all day lengthy however nonetheless develop into ailing if the meals is ready by an contaminated galleyhand.

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Picture credit score: Norovirus – Graham Beards at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0 commons / wikimedia; HAL Koningsdam – Kees Torn – KONINGSDAM, CC BY-SA 2.0 commons / wikimedia.