Bacteria On Cruise Ships

Cruise ships are a hotbed of bacteria and potential illnesses but the deadliest may be Legionnaires Disease an infection caused by Legionella organisms that leads to severe pneumonia.

Bacteria on cruise ships. Unlike most contagions this illness is not spread through person to person contact though this may happen on rare occasions. Cruise ships can act as an incubator for bacteria such as Escherichia coli Salmonella spp. Gastrointestinal illness is an inflammation.

The symptoms seem to suggest norovirus a highly contagious condition that has been responsible for gastrointestinal cruise ship outbreaks in the past. Most often these bacterial infections are. The CDC reported in its 2002 year-end review that the cruise ship outbreaks of that year demonstrated just how easily norovirus is transmitted from person to person in a closed environment.

Cruise ships are often described as floating cities and their waste management is no different than a small municipality. The Mountain Point wastewater treatment plant run by Ketchikans borough is allowed to put out 200 CFU per 100 ml more than 10 times as much as cruise ship systems. Types of bacterial gastroenteritis infections include Escherichia coli and Salmonella.

In a recent cluster of gastrointestinal illnesses on a cruise ship sailing from Tenerife to the US salmonella was identified as the likely culprit. Globally the cruise industry has already invested 1 billion in new technologies and cleaner fuels to significantly reduce ships. Outbreaks of gastrointestinal disease occur on cruise ships at a rate of approximately 1 to 6 outbreaks per 1000 cruises and the estimated likelihood of contracting gastroenteritis on an average 7-day cruise is less than 1 25 26.

David Gray Reuters Tab Lankford who was on the ship Paradise claims he contracted hot tub folliculitis from a Carnival whirlpool. All its ships now are self-disinfecting The pioneering expedition cruise company this week announced it had coated the interiors of all nine of its vessels with a new specialized treatment that interacts with light to break down bacteria viruses mold and airborne allergens. Infections causing gastroenteritis can be viral bacterial or parasitic in origin.

The bacteria was discovered on the MS. Carnival the troubled cruise line has another headache on its hands after a passenger filed a lawsuit alleging that flesh eating bacteria nearly took his leg in 2011. People often associate cruise ships with acute gastrointestinal illnesses such as norovirus but acute gastrointestinal illness is relatively infrequent on cruise ships.