The Health of the Cruise Industry
March 04, 2005
We've all turned on the news and seen the reports. Headlines that read something like, "X number of people contaminated with Norwalk virus on a cruise ship," or "Cruise ship returns to port early after dozens report gastrointestinal problems." Perhaps after hearing enough of them you might have decided that vacationing on a cruise ship is just too risky.
But how often does the news media report someone getting ill at an airport, a bus terminal, a hotel, heck---your office--- Extra, Extra! Read all about it! Bob contracts the flu at the water cooler today! His appearance at tomorrow's morning meeting is questionable!--- It just doesn't happen.
So are these gastrointestinal illnesses (GI) and diseases endemic only to ships? Are germs and bacteria stowing away on a cruise ship because they like the warm water and sandy beaches of the Cozumel? I know---maybe they have always wanted to learn how to surf.
Still, if you were to turn on the news or open a newspaper, it truly seems like only cruise ships are the harbingers of these diseases. But that just isn't the case, and the cruise industry wants things to change.
The International Council of Cruise Lines (ICCL) has petitioned the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to change the phrase "outbreak" to "increased incidences" when they describe onboard illnesses. They also want the CDC's website to show how many passengers are reported sick during each day of a cruise rather than cumulative totals for an entire cruise (newstarget.com). If the ICCL seems like it's simply arguing semantics, think again.
With media outlets overly-hyping the number of cruise passengers' illnesses, the effect it could have on potential cruisers is more than rhetorical; it has a real and damaging result. Potential cruisers see reports about cruise ships bringing home sick passengers and it can really deter them from enjoying what is in reality one of the safest and cleanest venues for your next vacation.
And, being on a cruise ship is not exactly like being on a plane or a bus where the constant come and go of passengers would make it impossible to compile any similar report. David Forney, chief of the Center of Disease Control's Vessel Sanitation Program, said cruise ships are singled out for gastrointestinal illnesses (GI) because the ships are the only facilities required to report them (newstarget.com). Not only that, a lot of these reports show higher numbers of people sick due to the fact that they have actually improved the method of reporting illnesses and the CDC has widened the definition of which symptoms constitute a GI.
But bad news is 'good' news for the media. How often do you think they've done a report on the high number of cruise passengers that have come back completely happy and healthy? Think about it this way. In 2004, there were 2,963 cruise passengers who were reported as getting ill; some fell ill due to E coli, but the majority were afflicted by gastrointestinal viruses (this includes the infamous Norwalk virus).
When you look at the fact that there are approximately 10 million passengers on cruise ships world wide (and that's a low estimation), the percentage of people with reported illnesses is only .029 %. That's about a third of a third of 1%! Couple that with the fact that there are about 23 million similar cases of GI in the U.S. alone every year, and it's clear that cruise ships are often misrepresented as some sort of resort getaway for bacteria.
In fact Forney goes on to say, "I think it is absolutely safe to go on the cruises." He does state, however, that some passengers show up in the ship's infirmary only a day or two into the cruise, too early to have contracted the illness during the voyage. "As a public health official, I think these people contribute to the problem," he said (cnn.com). Simply put, if you're feeling really ill, don't get onboard a cruise ship.
Cruise ships make it a point to clean, sterilize, and disinfect their ships as often as possible. Still, that's not to say people will never get sick onboard. However, that's the case with any public place, even though cruise ships are cleaned more often than most facilities. To single out the cruise ships as being especially prone to promulgating disease is not only inaccurate, it's unfair.
For more information on how to stay healthy on a cruise ship, check out the Cruise News February 17th article by Brian Reitter, "Keeping Yourself and All Those around You Healthy on Your Cruise Vacation."
By Michael Gloss, Jr. Sources: Cnn.com. "CDC: Cruises "absolutely safe." December 12, 2002 http://archives.cnn.com/2002/TRAVEL/12/12/cruise.ship.sickness Ebersold, William B. "Cruise Industry in Figures." Business Briefing: Global Cruise 2004. Pages 15-16 NewsTarget.com. "The cruise ship industry asked the CDC to tone down their wording in reporting onboard illness outbreaks." March 3, 2005 http://www.newstarget.com/z005121.htmlBook your cruise online
