Planning a Holiday Cruise--What About the Reports of Illness?

Why Do I Keep Hearing About Travelers Getting Sick?

During the peak cruises seasons we often hear of reports of outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness aboard a cruise ship. Sometimes the outbreak is serious enough to stay in the headlines for days. Don’t panic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requires cruise ships to report promptly all cases of gastrointestinal illness that fit a certain profile which accounts for why we, the general public, hear about such cases happening on cruises lines more often than at land-based vacation or recreation centers.

Why Are Cruise Ships Infected?

Nevertheless, we can’t discount the occurrence of such outbreaks on cruise ships. Why do we hear about such incidents on cruise ships with greater frequency than, say, similar incidents on airliners?

There are several factors to consider. First of all, passengers aboard even the largest airliners have very little contact with each other. Unless someone is seated near you, there’s little chance of even noticing that he’s aboard, much less interacting with him, so if he's contaminated with a harmful virus, your risk of infecting yourself is relatively low. On a cruise ship, on the other hand, you and the other passengers are in constant motion, circulating among a much greater number of people. The more door handles you touch, the more hands you shake, the more time you spend in the company of an infected person, the greater your chance of becoming infected.

Secondly, there are far more opportunities for food-borne pathogens to do their dirty work aboard cruise ships where the food preparation is virtually non-stop as compared to aboard an airliner where the food is pre-cooked. Chefs aboard cruises ships are dealing with raw meat, poultry and seafood. If meat is not handled correctly at any stage– from the thawing process to the chopping and cooking, it can become a breeding ground for dangerous bacteria.

A third factor is contact with the outside world. When an airliner lands at the airport it is cleaned before it goes back in service. Granted the cleaning is not designed to offer hospital-like sterilization to all surfaces, but it does lessen the likelihood of dangerous bacteria lying around. Compare that to cruise ships where the ship enters various ports around the world. At each port most of the passengers disembark to sightsee and shop. When they return to the ship there is always the possibility that they’ve returned with more than a t-shirt and postcards. They may be bringing aboard a nasty little virus or bacteria that could infect fellow passengers.

And finally, there are simply more people aboard a cruise ship than aboard a jumbo jet, therefore, you increase the chances of finding an infected person.