Federal health officials are reporting a norovirus outbreak on the current voyage of Oceania Cruises vessel, Oceania Riviera.
Eighty-two passengers and crew have been sickened with the gastrointestinal bug, norovirus. Specimens have been collected and tested onboard using a norovirus rapid test.
This is the second cruise ship outbreak investigated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) in 2016.
The voyage dates are from Feb. 12 to Feb. 22. A CDC Vessel Sanitation Program environmental health officer and an epidemiologist are currently making plans to board the ship upon arrival in Miami, FL to conduct an environmental health assessment and evaluate the outbreak and response activities.
In response to the outbreak, Oceania Cruises and the crew aboard the ship reported the following actions: Increased cleaning and disinfection procedures according to their outbreak prevention and response plan, collected stool specimens from passenger and crew gastrointestinal illness cases for testing and made twice daily reports of gastrointestinal illness cases to the Vessel Sanitation Program.
Norovirus is a highly contagious viral illness that often goes by other names, such as viral gastroenteritis, stomach flu, and food poisoning.
The symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and some stomach cramping. Sometimes people additionally have a low-grade fever, chills,headache, muscle aches, and a general sense of tiredness. The illness often begins suddenly, and the infected person may feel very sick. In most people, the illness is self-limiting with symptoms lasting for about 1 or 2 days. In general, children experience more vomiting than adults do.
Norovirus is spread person to person particularly in crowded, closed places. Norovirus is typically spread through contaminated food and water, touching surfaces or objects contaminated with norovirus and then putting your hand or fingers in your mouth and close contact with someone who is vomiting or has diarrhea.
Norovirus causes more than 20 million illnesses annually in the US, and it is the leading cause of gastroenteritis outbreaks in the United States.
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I am concerned about nurovirus outbreak as I am to go on the March 3 cruise. What is being done to clean this up
don’t go, friends on the last trip that was supposed to have been disinfected and 9% got ill including my friends despite the constant cleaning, which includes slimy disinfectant on the deck chairs and handrails staining clothing, bad smells from disinfectant. some luxury cruise. not to mention cut short 2 days. mandatory quarantine with no compensation
After buying tickets on the transatlantic April 11, 2016 Oceania Riviera cruise, I found out to my alarm that the ship has been infected with norovirus several times since Nov. 2015. I believe that Oceania and my travel agent were immoral in not letting me know about what was going on and that I have been defrauded. My travel insurance will not pay for cancellation due to norovirus. A maritime lawyer says we have no rights. Something must be done to stop this fraudulent cruise activity. Also today is April 1, 2016. There have been no on line reports from the cdc in many days to let me know the status of the virus and calling them to find out is futile. Two numbers a cdc rep gave me were both inoperable and she said she would have someone call me and no did. Any current info would be appreciated. Ed Walker, [email protected]
We disembarked from Oceania Riviera this morning. I became ill the second night after dinner in the Polo Grille. I had the whole Maine steamed lobster and attribute my illness to that. My husband did not get sick, but we were both quarantined 2 1/2 days. We missed the first port, the ship was not allowed to dock in Aruba, the second port, so no one got off. We had been released from quarantine by that time. Nonetheless, no one who had been quarantined was allowed off in Bonaire or Grenada. We missed four of the eight ports. Our first time off the ship was day nine. The service was not great, the cleaning procedure was ugly, there were so many inconveniences (read the reviews for vivid descriptions). Worst of all was management’s attitude that the passengers were to blame for bringing the virus aboard, and they accepted no responsibility. No apology, nothing. As you experienced, no one ever got back to us with any info or a response to any request. If there is anyway you can get out of the cruise, I would recommend you do so. Our experience was very, very disappointing.
I had same horrible experience
I had same horrible experience. 36 hrs after boarding we were sick along with 100 other fellow passengers. Second night had shrimp at the Polo Grill. Management was indifferent. Staff horribly overworked. Felt a bit scare that we could not leave boat even when we were healthy. You have little control of the situation.