Cruise ship
passengers
fall ill

An outbreak of the Norwalk
stomach virus affects 248 people
aboard the Sun Princess

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By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com

The Sun Princess, which left Honolulu Harbor last night for Kauai, is the latest in a series of cruise ships to be hit with outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness.

Passengers on the ship began reporting symptoms consistent with the Norwalk virus, or Norovirus on Monday, the second day of a 15-day cruise to the islands from Los Angeles, said Tom Dow, public affairs vice president for Princess Cruises.

The outbreak was reported to the federal Centers for Disease Control, Dow said.

The virus, also known as "24-hour stomach bug," causes gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach and intestines), usually resulting in nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Symptoms can last up to three days and the disease, although common and not serious for most healthy people, is highly contagious.

On the Sun Princess, 224 of its 2,029 passengers and 24 of its 877 crew appear to have contracted the virus, or one similar to it.

"A real pattern started showing up in days two, three and four of the cruise," Dow said.

The ship docked at Kailua-Kona and Hilo on the Big Island Thursday and Friday, spent a long day docked in Honolulu yesterday, and finishes its island tour with stops at Nawiliwili Harbor today and Lahaina Harbor tomorrow, he said.

The Centers for Disease Control notified the state Health Department of the outbreak, but said the situation was under control and ill visitors would not be allowed to leave the ship while in Hawaii, said Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo.

A Princess Cruises "SWAT" team of six specially trained cleaners helped the Sun Princess crew yesterday in a thorough cleaning of the ship while most of its passengers were ashore enjoying Oahu, Dow said.

Passengers who are ill aren't charged for medical treatment, room service or bottled water, Dow said.

The Centers for Disease Control investigated 21 reports of gastroenteritis aboard 17 cruise ships in 2002, with nine outbreaks confirmed to be Norovirus, the agency reported.

In November, 42 passengers on the Holland America Line's Statendam were sick on a cruise from Ensenada, Mexico, to Hawaii, but the illnesses weren't reported while the ship was in Hawaii, according to the CDC.

Last May, passengers aboard the Ocean Princess, another Princess Cruises ship, reported getting sick on two cruises between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Seward, Alaska. Lab tests confirmed a Norwalk-like virus to be the cause.

The Sun Princess has never had such an outbreak and is the first Princess ship based out of Los Angeles to experience it, Dow said.

"There seems to be indications that this virus is more common in the U.S. this year than in past," Dow said. "The CDC has advised us it has had 23 million cases in the U.S. this year."