Noro on the Coral Princess

[Bob & Bev]

The CDC website reports over 12% of the passengers currently on board Coral Princess landing at FL on February 23rd are sick with what appears to be the dreaded Norovirus.

The ship is scheduled to sail from FL on the 23rd heading for LA via the Panama Canal where we board March 9th.

Does anyone know passengers on board who can advise how bad it is?

[Dave]

Are you sure about those dates? The only report I can find on the CDC website is about the cruise which ended February 13.

Regardless, it's too late now to worry about it. I have no doubt they have implemented maximum controls.

[f-mattox]

The cruise from February 3-13 is the only one I cold find information on also:

# Cruise Line: Princess Cruises
# Cruise Ship: Coral Princess
# Voyage Dates: 2/3-2/13
# Number of ill passengers out of total number of passengers at the end of the voyage: 251 of 1996 (12.8%)
# Number of ill crew out of total number of crew at the end of the voyage: 19 of 885 (2.1%)
# Predominant symptoms: diarrhea and vomiting
# Actions: In response to the outbreak, Princess Cruises and the crew aboard the ship took the following actions:

* increased cleaning and disinfection procedures;
* is sending daily updates to CDC and will do so until the number of ill people returns to expected levels;
* notified onboard passengers of the illness;
* notified oncoming passengers of the illness;
* provided shore side staff to assist with cleaning and disinfection between the time of disembarkation and embarkation of the next voyage;
* lengthen the time between disembarkation and embarkation in order to allow more time for cleaning and disinfection;
* staffed the ship with senior public health manager to assist with analysis and prevention;
* contracted with a company to clean and disinfect port terminal and transportation services;
* collected stool specimens for analysis.

# On February 11th, VSP staff boarded the ship Ocho Rios, Jamaica to conduct an onboard environmental health assessment. Princess Cruises will continue to send daily updates to VSP until the number of ill people returns to expected levels

[Bob & Bev]

Now that is interesting!

Mattox quoted the story in the CDC website about the Noro problem on the Coral. The story is headed: Investigation update on the Coral Princess.

What is of interest is that he quotes the entire story from the CDC website. In the last paragraph, which starts with "On February 11th, VSP staff...

In this quote, a whole sentence has been deleted which was there last week: "During the current voyage(sailing dates: 2/13-2/23, the number of ill people is higher than expected." Princess Cruises will continue to send....

My dates are correct. Not sure what is going on!

In the words of a well known comedian: "Very interesting!"

[LisaP]

Here is a direct link to the update on the CDC page. As it is an update, it is highly possible that the last sentence was added after f-mattox referenced it -- perhaps one of those daily updates mentioned earlier.

Nowhere in the current release does it say that more than 12% of pax currently onboard are suspected to have symptoms consistent with norovirus -- it just says "higher than expected" levels, whatever that means.

In any case, I wouldn't be concerned about your cruise on March 9. By looking further into the site, I found this, indicating that I was on a ship soon after a norovirus (and e.coli) incident a couple of weeks prior, and we had no issues.

Just take the usual precautions yourself. Remember, it's also possible to contract norovirus just about anywhere. One of our huge, respected teaching hospitals in Boston just reported an outbreak in one of its wards.

[penny3333]

That ship will be under microscopic scrutiny, so you'll be fine, I'm sure. Just wash your hands constantly, open the doors with a paper towel, etc. We all know the drill, and it can and does happen everywhere.