(The Epoch Times)—An outbreak on a Celebrity Cruises ship left more than 100 people suffering from gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Dec. 30.
Ninety-five passengers and nine crew members who were on the Celebrity Eclipse reported symptoms, predominantly vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps, the CDC said in a summary of the outbreak.
The cause of the illnesses is not yet known.
The cruise set sail on Dec. 20 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and made four stops after traveling south, including a stop in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Christmas.
It returned to Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 28.
The Celebrity Eclipse has a listed occupancy of up to 2,852 passengers and 11 dining venues. The CDC says the ship was packed with 3,042 passengers, as well as 1,235 crew members, during the late December cruise.
About three percent of the passengers and 0.7 percent of the crew fell ill.
In response to the outbreak, the company and crew ramped up cleaning and disinfection procedures, collected stool specimens from people who reported being sick, isolated ill passengers and employees, and consulted with the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program about cleaning procedures and reporting cases, according to the CDC. The company said that the CDC program was informed of the outbreak on Dec. 28.
Celebrity Cruises did not respond to a request from The Epoch Times for comment.
Cruise ships are required to report cases of gastrointestinal illness, or acute gastroenteritis, to the CDC. Reporting cases to staffers on board can help detect gastrointestinal outbreaks quickly and enable steps to limit the spread.
The case definition for the illness is three or more loose stools within a 24-hour period or vomiting plus an additional symptom, such as diarrhea, aching muscles, or fever.
Norovirus is often found to be the cause of gastrointestinal illnesses on cruise ships, but at the beginning of an investigation, the cause of an outbreak is not always known, the CDC said.
“Finding the agent that caused an outbreak (causative agent) can take time. When an outbreak occurs, people whose symptoms met the case definition are asked to provide stool or vomitus samples. These samples are tested to determine the causative agent,” the agency stated. “In this outbreak, outbreak notification occurred after the voyage, so samples were not available for testing.”
The outbreak came several weeks after more an 100 people became sick from norovirus on an Aida Cruises ship that departed Hamburg, Germany, on Nov. 10. That cruise was set to continue until March 2026.
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Starting the Day With a Scripture-Inspired Roast Helps Center Your Thoughts on Eternal Truths Amid Temporal Pressures
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