Passengers can make a ship sick

By Anita Dunham-Potter

Travel columnist

updated 3:37 p.m. ET May 25, 2006

Yes, you read that headline right: Passengers can make a ship sick.

When most people take a cruise they focus on the fun, the sun and the food. But here’s another thing to think about: sanitation. Poor sanitation can ruin your cruise — ask anyone who’s been felled by a norovirus. And the biggest culprit? Fellow passengers who don’t wash their hands.

Sailor’s enemy

There’s nothing worse than getting sick on your cruise vacation. Seasoned travelers know all too well the importance of watching what they eat and washing their hands: It keeps the bugs at bay. Still, some of our fellow travelers aren’t so vigilant about hand washing, and they put us all at risk.

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Poor personal hygiene habits can spread one of travelers’ worst enemies: noroviruses, also known as Norwalk virus and NLV, a group of viruses that can cause severe diarrhea, nausea and vomiting over a 48- to 60-hour period. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), noroviruses are highly contagious and can be passed directly from person to person as well as through tainted food and water. While the majority of patients recover with no lasting effects, the illness can be a more serious problem for infants, elderly people and people with weakened immune systems.

The risk of contracting a contagious disease like norovirus illness is particularly high on a cruise ship because passengers mingle in a relatively confined space. For this reason, all cruise ships that dock in the United States and travel to foreign ports undergo regular inspections by the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP). U.S.-based ships that do not make foreign port stops, such as Norwegian Cruise Line’s America fleet, which cruises around the Hawaiian Islands, are given similar inspections under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Interstate Travel Program.

All this inspecting is both reassuring and alarming, and wise travelers take their own precautions against picking up nasty germs at sea.

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