Royal Caribbean cruise
ended after illness outbreak
Norovirus suspected as
gastrointestinal illness with vomiting, diarrhea that infected 281 passengers
The Associated Press Posted: Jan
26, 2014 7:48 PM ET
The Royal Caribbean cruise line on
Sunday ended a ship's 10-day trip in the Caribbean
early after hundreds of passengers and crew members were sickened with a
gastrointestinal illness.
The Miami-based company made the announcement a few hours after
officials from the U.S. Centres for
Disease Control and Prevention boarded the Explorer of the Seas during its
U.S. Virgin Islands port call to investigate the illness and evaluate the
outbreak response.
"New reports of illness have
decreased day-over-day, and many guests are again up and about. Nevertheless,
the disruptions caused by the early wave of illness means that we were unable
to deliver the vacation our guests were expecting," Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. said in a statement.
'The disruptions caused by the
early wave of illness means that we were unable to deliver the vacation our
guests were expecting.'- Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. statement
The decision to end the trip came
after consultation between CDC officials and members of the company's medical
team, the company said.
The CDC said earlier that 281, or
nearly 10 per cent, of the 3,050 passengers aboard the 15-deck ship reported
getting sick during the cruise that left Cape Liberty, N. J., on Tuesday.
Twenty-two crew members also reported feeling ill, according to a Friday statement
from the health agency.
Norovirus suspected culprit
On Sunday evening, the cruise line
said the outbreak of the gastrointestinal illness with vomiting and diarrhea
"spiked over the weekend," but it did not disclose a tally of
sickened people.
Tests would have to confirm what
caused the outbreak, but fast-spreading norovirus is often to blame for similar
symptoms sweeping closed quarters like those on cruise ships.
Royal Caribbean said special
cleaning products and disinfectants proven to kill norovirus were being used to
clean the ship before it returned to the U.S. It said a full sanitization
program would be carried out after the Explorer of the Seas reached its home
port Wednesday.
Janet Diaz, a company spokeswoman,
said CDC representatives boarded the
Explorer of the Seas during the afternoon when it docked in St. Thomas, the main island of the U.S.
Virgin Islands. During the previous port call in Puerto
Rico, the ship underwent "extensive and thorough sanitizing"
to help prevent more people from getting sick, she said.
Passengers and crew who fell ill
have "responded well to over-the-counter medication being administered
onboard the ship," Diaz said.
On Friday, an Explorer of the Seas
passenger named Arnee Dodd tweeted that she had fallen ill aboard the ship and
was quarantined with the other sick people. The Connecticut woman wrote that ship employees
"put a lock down on food & are constantly cleaning everything."
U.S.
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Thomas R. Frieden
is the director at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the Barack Obama administration, and was the commissioner for the New York City Health Department.
Note: CDC Foundation
is a foundation for the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Bloomberg
Family Foundation was a funder for the CDC
Foundation.
Manny
Diaz is a director at the Bloomberg
Family Foundation, was the Miami
(FL) mayor, and a member of the Homeland
Security Advisory Council.
Lee
H. Hamilton is a member of the Homeland
Security Advisory Council, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Michael R.
Bloomberg is the founder of the Bloomberg
Family Foundation, was the New
York (NY) mayor, a benefactor for the Harlem
Children's Zone, and a donor for the Robin Hood Foundation.
George Soros
was a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone, and the chairman for
the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Harlem Children's Zone,
the Robin Hood Foundation, the Committee for Economic Development,
the Brookings Institution (think tank),
and the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Donna S.
Morea was a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and
the EVP for the CGI Group Inc.
CGI Group
Inc. was the Obamacare contractor that developed Healthcare.gov
web site.
Obamacare
is Barack Obama’s signature policy initiative.
Morten
Arntzen is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, a
director at the Royal Caribbean Cruises
Ltd., and was a director at the Chiquita
Brands International, Inc.
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. was the chairman & CEO for Chiquita Brands International, Inc, is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), an honorary
life director at the Chicago Council on
Global Affairs, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Michelle
Obama is a director at the Chicago
Council on Global Affairs, and was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP.
R.
Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Newton
N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Thomas J. Pritzker
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, a director at the Royal
Caribbean Cruises Ltd., and married to Margot
L. Pritzker.
Margot L. Pritzker
is married to Thomas J. Pritzker, a
director at the Chicago Council on
Global Affairs, and a trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
James S.
Crown is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and a member
of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago,
Members Directory A-Z (Past Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Lester Crown
is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the chairman for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and
was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
No comments:
Post a Comment