|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Illness strikes 81 aboard cruise ship
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Seventy-one passengers and 10 crew members aboard Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas have reported symptoms of flu-like illness, the latest in a series of such reports aboard cruise ships in recent weeks. The ship left the Port of Miami Monday carrying 2,630 passengers and 870 crew members for a four-day trip to Nassau, Bahamas; Coco Cay, Bahamas; and Key West, Florida, where 35 of the ill passengers chose to leave the ship, a cruise line spokeswoman said. They were driven in a bus back to the Port of Miami. The others were confined to their quarters to limit the chances they would infect others, said Lynn Martenstein, vice president of corporate communications for Royal Caribbean. The ship returned Friday as scheduled to the Port of Miami. Stool samples will be sent to a laboratory designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to determine the cause of the outbreak, Martenstein said. Results will not be determined for about a week, she said. The 81 people sickened represent 2.3 percent of those aboard, less than the 3 percent figure the CDC uses to define an outbreak. Depending on how long they were sick, some passengers will be given a credit for a future cruise, Martenstein said. In recent weeks, Royal Caribbean has beefed up its cleaning regimen, following CDC-recommended procedures, she added. The 10-year-old ship, one of 25 in Royal Caribbean's fleet, was scheduled to depart the Port of Miami Friday afternoon for its next cruise.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
