Hundreds get sick aboard Royal Caribbean cruise ship (Jan 26, 2014)

Hundreds get sick aboard Royal Caribbean cruise ship

By Associated Press | 

Posted: Sun 10:41 PM, Jan 26, 2014  | 

Updated: Sun 10:42 PM, Jan 26, 2014

http://www.wndu.com/home/headlines/Hundreds-of-people-get-sick-aboard-Royal-Caribbean-cruise-ship-242153841.html

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) 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. Centers 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 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 percent, of the 3,050 passengers aboard the 15-deck ship reported getting sick during the cruise that left Cape Liberty, New Jersey, on Tuesday. Twenty-two crew members also reported feeling ill, according to a Friday statement from the health agency.

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 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."

Royal Caribbean said it was "taking several steps" to compensate passengers for the shortened trip. It also sought to assure customers scheduled for the ship's next voyage that "all possible measures will have been taken to prevent further problems."

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd

Morten Arntzen is a director at the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., and a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development.

Note: Open Society Foundations was a funder for the Committee for Economic Development, and the Human Rights Watch.

George Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone, and a benefactor for the Human Rights Watch.

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Committee for Economic Development, the Harlem Children's Zone, the Aspen Institute (think tank), the Millennium Promise, the Human Rights Watch, and the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund.

Maria A. Sastre is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and was a VP for the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Michael R. Bloomberg was a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone, and is the founder of the Bloomberg Family Foundation.

Bloomberg Family Foundation was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the CDC Foundation.

Amy Robbins Towers was a board member for the CDC Foundation, a director at the Millennium Promise, and is a director at the Human Rights Watch.

CDC Foundation is a foundation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

David Satcher was a board member for the CDC Foundation, a director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an administrator for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and a surgeon general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Donna E. Shalala was the secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development.

Maria A. Sastre is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and was a VP for the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Morten Arntzen is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and a director at the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Quincy Jones was a director at the Millennium Promise, and is a director emeritus at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund.

Karen Hastie Williams is a senior director at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, and William H. Hastie’s daughter.

William H. Hastie was Karen Hastie Williams’s father, and a U.S. Virgin Islands governor.