Over 200 passengers on a luxury four-week cruise around the Caribbean have fallen ill with norovirus aboard Cunard’s Queen Mary 2, experiencing bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea while at sea.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) reported the outbreak aboard the 13-deck luxury ship, which is currently coming toward the end of its month-long cruise.
The outbreak was reported to the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) on 18 March, after 224 passengers, 8.8 per cent of 2,538 guests on the ship, reported being ill during the voyage.
Out of the 1,232 crew on Queen Mary 2, 17 also went down with the illness.
Read more: How likely are you to get ill on a cruise as norovirus cases rise?
In response to the outbreak, the CDC said Cunard and the crew had increased its cleaning and disinfection procedures, collected stool specimens from gastrointestinal illness cases for testing, and consulted with the VSP about sanitation cleaning procedures and reporting ill cases.
The cruise line, owned by the Carnival Corporation, also said that passengers and crew who came down with the illness were isolated.
The VSP continues to remotely monitor the situation, as well as review how the ship responds to the outbreak and its sanitation procedures.
Queen Mary 2 is due to arrive in Southampton, UK, on 6 April, after leaving the same port on 8 March for a four-week round trip around the eastern Caribbean, ship tracking site CruiseMapper shows.
The luxury cruise has stopped at destinations including New York, St Lucia, Barbados, Dominica and St Kitts during its itinerary.
In a statement to The Independent, Cunard said: "We have had a small number of guests on board Queen Mary 2 who have reported symptoms of gastrointestinal illness.
“We are continuing to closely monitor the guests and, as a precaution, have completed a comprehensive deep clean of the ship and immediately activated our enhanced health and safety protocols, which are proving to be effective.
“Thanks to the swift response from our crew and the additional measures that we have in place, we are already seeing a reduction in reported cases."
Cruise ships are required to report cases of gastrointestinal illnesses to the VSP, as long as it's under its jurisdiction and more than three per cent of of its passengers or crew fall ill.
Another outbreak recently affected passengers on Holland America Line’s Rotterdam, which saw 89 passengers and 4 crew members fall ill with norovirus in early March.
The same happened a month earlier on the ship when 107 guests and 12 crew fell ill.
So far this year, the CDC has reported 12 outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness on board cruise ships, with 10 of these caused by norovirus. In 2024, 18 outbreaks were recorded in total.
The Independent has contacted Cunard for comment.
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