These days there are a lot of cases of diarrheal diseases being reported on cruise ships than were the cases in the 1990s.

There were statistics reported that showed that the incidence of the gastroenteritis in a seven day cruise has increased from about two cases from 1990 to 2000 to about three cases between 2001 and 2004.

There are excellent health practices on cruise ships, as well as high a very high level of inspections to maintain a very proper hygiene, but the gastroenteritis that is likely linked with person to person spread of illness is caused by norovirus is something that is very difficult to prevent.

It was also stated that this problem can be in other traveling modes such as airplanes and trains in which there is a high density of travelers. According to the statistics, there were about 16 cases of people per 100,000 who were suffering from gastroenteritis among the passenger in the cruise ships in 2000, which was an improved figure of 29 cases per 100,000 passengers in 1990.

But in 2002, there were about 29 outbreaks, which was a much high figure than before.
The researchers mentioned that the ships were performing really well even on inspections that were unannounced and were doing at best on the health inspections throughout the time when the study was being conducted with about half of the ships scoring above 95 on a scale of 1 to 100.

The researchers stated that the increase in the cases of the gastroenteritis has increased because of the prevalence of the norovirus. This virus is found commonly in the regions of Europe and North America.

The norovirus is the most frequent cause of gastroenteritis and the symptoms that it causes include diarrhea and vomiting. The virus is spread from person to person contact, through contaminated food or water or through coming in contact with the contaminated surfaces.

It is also stated that there is about 1% less chance of contracting the viral gastroenteritis while the cruisers spend an average of about seven days at the sea. It was also stated that the best preventive strategy that can be done to prevent this illness is to wash the hands using the hand sanitizers so as to prevent contracting this illness.

Tags: