To stay healthy on a ship, avoid the public toilets

[Fontana]

(Apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere on the forum)

To stay healthy on a ship, avoid the public toilets

November 18, 2009 - 3:07PM

Going on a cruise? To cut your risk of getting sick while sailing the high seas, avoid using the ship's public bathrooms.

Researchers have found that only 37 per cent of 273 randomly selected public restrooms on cruise ships that were checked on 1546 occasions were cleaned at least daily, with the toilet seat the best cleaned of six evaluated objects.

On 275 occasions no objects in a restroom were cleaned for at least 24 hours with baby changing tables found to be the least thoroughly cleaned object.

Researcher Philip Carling, of Carney Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, said public toilet seats and flush devices, stall handholds and door handles, inner restroom door handles, and baby changing tables "on most, but not all, cruise ships" are not being cleaned and disinfected thoroughly.

"There was a substantial potential for washed hands to become contaminated while the passenger was exiting the restroom, given that only 35 per cent of restroom exit knobs or pulls were cleaned daily," Carling said in a statement.

"Only disinfection cleaning by cruise ship staff can reasonably be expected to mitigate these risks."
Lack of disinfection, he and colleagues from the Cambridge Health Alliance and Tufts University School of Medicine, noted in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, may significantly increase risk for illness, and particularly for the severe diarrhea and vomiting caused by highly contagious norovirus.

Carling told Reuters Health that cruise passengers should minimize public restroom use, wash hands with soap and water rather than alcohol-based hand rubs, and be aware of the disease transmission potential from all publicly touched surfaces.

For the study, Carling's group enlisted 46 health professionals to check 273 randomly selected public restrooms daily during cruises between July 2005 and August 2008.

The ships most originated from US ports and 82 per cent from the five largest cruise lines.
Armed with handheld ultraviolet lights to pick up florescent traces of a transparent, but easily cleanable solution they had previously sprayed on surfaces, the cleaning spies identified surfaces left uncleaned for 24 hours. Toilet seats were the best-cleaned object. Of the 2,010 toilet seats evaluated, 50 per cent had been cleaned. They found 42 per cent of toilet flush devices, 37 per cent of toilet stall doors, and 31 per cent of stall handhold bars had been cleaned.

Only 35 per cent of interior bathroom door handles and 29 per cent of baby changing tables had been cleaned. Post-outbreak cleaning and disinfection practices on cruise ships, although important, are not enough, the researchers say. Increased efforts to prevent outbreaks with better disinfection practices are clearly needed.

Reuters

http://www.theage.com.au/travel/trav...1118-ilxu.html

[potterhill]

I really don't think this applies to Oceania. Whenever I have used the public facilities they are spotless and often the cleaner has just finished.

I try never to touch flush handles with my hands or the taps and especially the doorknobs.

Mo

[LHT28]

I agree with MO.
They are always cleaning the washrooms on O.

Lyn

[Marebear]

I recently returned from a cruise on the Nautica and the restrooms were spotless and cleaned frequently during the day. There was also hand sanitizer everywhere.

[Rickey 88]

I notice the OP is from Melbourne and it may be that he or she has never been on Oceania and may not be aware that the Oceania ships that stop at a U.S. port are inspected and rated at least once a year by the CDC (Center for Disease Control). The Regatta was lasted inspected on 3/9/09 and received a perfect 100 score.

[wripro]

Even if you wanted to avoid the public restrooms and go back to your cabin it's much easier to do on a smaller ship like Oceania's than on these giant behemoths the mass market lines are sailing.

[StanandJim]

Even if you wanted to avoid the public restrooms and go back to your cabin it's much easier to do on a smaller ship like Oceania's than on these giant behemoths the mass market lines are sailing.

Pertinent to this comment AND the OP, what does one do if one is on the rock climbing wall and has to sneeze?

Towards the wall or away from the wall?........I cannot think of which would be worse.

[Friscorays]

Turn head to left or right and sneeze into sleave of course! It can be done even while climbing a real or man-made cliff!

"To help stop the spread of germs,

• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
• If you don't have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve, not your hands.
• Put your used tissue in the waste basket."

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/covercough.htm

[travelingpink]

Thanks for your photo; it made me laugh!

[hondorner]

Do you think they sanitize the handholds on that climbing wall?

[rhohea]

FYI - The OP has cruised on Oceania at least once - Regatta earlier this year. I think she was just passing on information that she came across as a general information article.