Cruise Ship Norovirus

Cruise Ship Norovirus Cases Double In 2012

by Cruise Ship Norovirus on 01/18/13

With fourteen cruise ship Norovirus outbreaks in 2011 which included 1,426 reported cases, it would seem Norovirus was on the decline after the bumper 2010 season of 14 outbreaks and 2,840 reported cases.

When 2012 finally arrived, it was bad news for cruise industry. There were 17 outbreaks of Norovirus on cruise ships, victimizing 3141 passengers and crewmembers combined. It was the worst year for cruisie ship Norovirus since the dreaded year of 2006 when nearly 5,000 cases of Norovirus were reported.

Half of the outbreaks were attributed to Princess Cruises. Crown Princess and Ruby Princess lead their fleet, with Sun Princess, Dawn Princess and Emerald Princess contributing to the sickening reputation Princess Cruises was getting in 2012, ending with 8 outbreaks among their cruise ships.

A trend was seen among those 3141 reported cases. It didn't matter which cruise line or which cruise ship was sailing out of Port Everglades, Florida, they were loading up sick passsengers and infecting others, sailing after sailing. Clearly the port city residents were bringing it aboard.

The Queen Mary brought the Norovirus from London, England to New York City and other ports like Miami, Juneau, San Diego, Seattle and San Francisco couldn't escape the vacation-ruining scrourge.

The 2012 outbreaks were deemed an "epidemic" by the media. Though in the past, we see years heavy with cases broken up by very light years. It'll be interesting to see if 2013 turns out to be light year, given the heavy case load in 2012.