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More sickened on Disney cruise
PORT CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- With a Disney cruise ship due to return to Port Canaveral on Saturday, the number of people sick on the boat had climbed Friday to 187, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. On the ship's cruise last week, more than 300 passengers and crew fell ill with flu-like symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps. The ship was quickly disinfected before embarking on the current cruise. Disney Cruise Line has voluntarily canceled the next tour of the ship, which was scheduled to begin Saturday, and will take a week to perform a deep cleaning aboard the vessel. Passengers due to begin their Disney cruise Saturday were notified of the cancellation by the company. They will receive a full refund and a 50 percent discount on a future cruise. "I understand this decision will disappoint many families, but we feel this is the right thing to do," said Matt Ouimet, Disney Cruise Line president. Disney said typically five to 10 people fall ill on a seven-day cruise with 2,400 people aboard. On Wednesday, when the decision to cancel the next voyage was made, 123 aboard the boat were suffering from stomach problems. As of noon Friday, 164 passengers and 23 crew members were ill, CDC spokesman Mike Groutt said. The CDC determined that Norwalk virus was the cause of last week's illnesses. The virus can be transmitted through person-to-person contact or by consuming contaminated food or water. Infected people usually recover within two -three days without serious or long-term health effects. The CDC has not yet confirmed the cause of this week's illnesses, but suspects the cause is the same. Norwalk-like viruses are most likely to hit group settings such as banquet halls, cruise ships, dormitories, and campgrounds, according to the CDC. Disney is not the only cruise line to be hit by waves of illness recently. Hundreds of passengers and crew members took ill with the virus on four consecutive sailings of the Holland America Cruise Lines ship Amsterdam in October and November. After 68 people became ill during the last sailing, Holland America took the ship out of service last week. Lawyers have filed a class action lawsuit against company, seeking damages on behalf of more than 500 passengers and crew members who were sickened by the Norwalk virus on those ill-fated voyages. The complaint, filed Monday in Seattle where the company is headquartered, alleges that Holland America "knew or should have known" that its passengers could be infected with the highly contagious virus by not taking the ocean liner out of service while sanitizing the ship and eliminating the prospect of sickening more people. Disney hires former CDC expertDisney spokesman Mark Jaronski said the company had hired Don Turner, former head of the CDC vessel sanitation program to supervise the cleanup. "He's there because of his years of expertise in overseeing cleanups," Jaronski said, "and he can work with our experts aboard the ship to ... make sure everything is safe and to get this thing under control." Disney also dispatched two Walt Disney World microbiologists to help oversee steps to sanitize the ship. Disney characters aboard the family cruise are taking steps to avoid the level of contact they'd normally have with passengers, Jaronski said. And they're cleaning their hands -- and in some cases their costumes -- more often, he said. "They're still hugging children," he said. "The characters are using their own pens to sign autographs instead of the children's."
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