Legionnaires' Disease

Published on: January 6, 2025

Cruise Ships Reports Worst Year for Stomach Sickness Onboard in Over a Decade

Hundreds of passengers and crew were reported among the sick in at least five separate outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness in December, according to reporting from The Washington Post.

Just last month alone, 781 passengers and 109 crew reported symptoms of the highly contagious norovirus. Such symptoms include diarrhea and vomiting. In 2024, the cruise ship industry reported at least 16 stomach illness outbreaks on ships. This is the highest number of outbreaks since 2012, according to numbers reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While the main cause of these outbreaks has been norovirus, other causes that have been identified include E. coli and salmonella.

Published on: November 18, 2024

Over 100 people sue after cruise ship illness. Now, the cruise line is being accused of downplaying the numbers.

By Leesfield & Partners

More than 100 passengers who traveled on P&O’s Ventura, a ship owned by Carnival Cruise Line, have filed suit after they say they got sick on board.

Attorneys for the passengers claim there were “repeated outbreaks” of illness on the ship between April and June. About 519 passengers reported for weeks about their symptoms of norovirus, a stomach bug that causes inflammation in the stomach and intestines and is highly contagious. The first outbreak allegedly took place in May during a two-week cruise around the Canary Islands.

In reporting from the BBC it was alleged that Carnival communicated that less than 1% of passengers experienced symptoms while Southampton health officials claimed the number was closer to 12% of passengers.

Published on: October 30, 2024

Outbreaks of Legionnaires’ Disease Linked Back to Two Cruise Ships, CDC says.

By Leesfield & Partners

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a report detailing two separate outbreaks of Legionnaires’ Disease linked to cruise ships on different cruise lines.

The report’s findings say that the two ships, which were referred to as only “Ship A” and “Ship B,” had outdoor, private hot tubs on balconies. These hot tubs, according to the CDC, were the most likely cause of the outbreaks. Cases began springing up in November 2022, resulting in at least 12 passengers exposed to the disease.

Ship A, which had cases of Legionnaires’ Disease from November 2022 until April 2024, had a total of eight cases on board. Five of these cases stemmed from the same 14-day cruise in November 2022. Two other cases were identified from August-September 2023. In April 2024, one additional patient was identified. Both patients who were exposed in 2023 told health officials they were staying in cabins with hot tubs on the balconies. Of these cases, six were hospitalized.