An “unknown” outbreak aboard a cruise ship is spreading, and now 154 people are sickened, said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in an update this week.
So far, 25 crew members and 129 passengers on the Carnival-owned Cunard Cruise Line’s Queen Victoria have become ill during the trip, which is up by about 15 cases from when the illnesses were reported earlier in February, according to the CDC. The Queen Victoria cruise has 1,824 passengers and 967 crew members on board, according to the agency.
It’s still not clear what’s causing the outbreak on the cruise ship, which left Florida on Jan. 22. Symptoms include vomiting and diarrhea, said the CDC, which provided no other details.
Cunard Cruise Line confirmed that guests on the Queen Victoria became sick during the trip.
“Cunard confirms that a number of guests had reported symptoms of gastrointestinal illness on board Queen Victoria on voyage V405 which departed Florida on [Jan. 22] and arrived in San Francisco on [Feb. 7],” said the cruise operator in a statement to news outlets this week. “They immediately activated their enhanced health and safety protocols to ensure the wellbeing of all guests and crew on board and these measures have been effective.”
According to the tracking website CruiseMapper, the Queen Victoria is on a 55-day trip that will travel around the world from Germany to Australia. It’s final destination date is March 4. This week, the ship reached Honolulu, Hawaii.
The recent illnesses come about a month after nearly 100 passengers on a Celebrity Cruises vessel, the Celebrity Constellation, were sickened with norovirus when it departed in early January from Florida, said the CDC in a separate update.
In that outbreak, the agency said that 92 passengers and eight crew members became ill, with the main symptoms being diarrhea and vomiting.
Common Outbreak Source
While the CDC report still hasn’t revealed the cause of the Cunard cruise ship’s outbreak, norovirus has been the most common source of illnesses on cruise ships in recent years. The agency reported 14 illness outbreaks on cruise ships in 2023, with norovirus being listed as the causative agent in all but one of the incidents.
Last year, for example, a norovirus outbreak sickened more than 170 people on a Celebrity cruise ship, with the main symptoms being diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and headaches.
In a normal year, according to the CDC, norovirus causes between 19 million and 21 million cases of vomiting and diarrhea, 109,000 hospitalizations, and 900 deaths across the United States. The virus also is associated with about 495,000 emergency department visits, mostly in younger children, the CDC says.
If there is a new strain of the virus, the CDC says, there can be upward of 50 percent more norovirus illnesses in a given year.
The CDC’s webpage for norovirus says the virus is very contagious and generally causes vomiting and diarrhea. “Anyone can get infected and sick with norovirus. Norovirus is sometimes called the ‘stomach flu’ or ‘stomach bug,'” the agency says. “However, norovirus illness is not related to the flu.”
Other than cruise lines, norovirus outbreaks often occur in health care facilities, long-term care facilities, restaurants, child care centers, and schools. Noting the association between norovirus outbreaks and cruises, the CDC says that more than 90 percent of “outbreaks of diarrheal disease on cruise ships” are caused by the virus.
“These outbreaks often get media attention, which is why some people call norovirus the ‘cruise ship virus,’” the CDC says. “However, norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships account for only a small percentage … of all reported norovirus outbreaks. Norovirus can be especially challenging to control on cruise ships because of the close living quarters, shared dining areas, and rapid turnover of passengers.”
