In a follow-up on a report approximately one week ago, Vessel Sanitation Program officials confirmed the etiology of the gastrointestinal outbreak on the Viking Ocean Cruises vessel, Viking Sea was norovirus.
The outbreak onboard the Viking Sea January 18–28, 2019 voyage sickened 38 passengers, or 4.1 percent of the total.
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.
- Infectious disease bric-a-bracs: Measles outbreak updates
- Jamaica dengue outbreak: Hundreds of cases in St. Catherine
- Lassa fever case in Guinea
- Measles in Illinois: 2nd case reported in the University of Illinois campus community
- Taiwan reports 1st locally transmitted dengue case in Kaohsiung
- Saudi Arabia reports increase in MERS cases
