noro on rci

[irishjim]

Noro out break on RCI out of Miami,report in Miami news:eek:

Jim

[sail7seas]

That's not really headline news.

Noro is the second most common illness....... second only to the common cold.

We all know the proper procedure we should take to keep ourselves healthy.

 

[CruiserBruce]

It is news because it happened on another cruise line besides HAL. Previously it had only happened on HAL!! :D;);)

[sail7seas]

It is news because it happened on another cruise line besides HAL. Previously it had only happened on HAL!! :D;);)

 

:D Me thinks not!! :)

I suspect there is no cruise line, no cruise ship that has always been noro free unless it left the boatyard as new build yesterday. :eek:

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Noro out break on RCI out of Miami,report in Miami news:eek:

Jim

 

 

 

Thank you for the information.

Hope RCI keeps it under control.

[maggiekoolcruiser]

It is news because it happened on another cruise line besides HAL. Previously it had only happened on HAL!! :D;);)

 

Really ? Where u get that info from ? Or you're kidding :)

[sail7seas]

CruiserBruce

 

It is news because it happened on another cruise line besides HAL. Previously it had only happened on HAL!! :D ;) ;)

 

 

 

Really ? Where u get that info from ? Or you're kidding :)

 

 

I think the string of emoticons likely mean he's kidding. :)

 

Edited January 18, 2014 by sail7seas

[CruiserBruce]

It is news because it happened on another cruise line besides HAL. Previously it had only happened on HAL!! :D;);)

 

Really ? Where u get that info from ? Or you're kidding :)

 

As Sail said, the string of emoticons indicates I was being sarcastic. But, the reason is that for many years, several posters would continuously say something was wrong with HAL because HAL had all the noro outbreaks. Of course that is not true.

[Typhoon1]

I saw that story also. Must have been a slow news day. Media outlets seemed to have stopped reporting Noro outbreaks years ago.

[Hlitner]

The problem with the OPs post is that it just feeds into the misinformation about Norovirus. So let me paste just one short excerpt from the CDC

 

"Norovirus is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in the United States. Each year, it causes 19-21 million illnesses and contributes to 56,000-71,000 hospitalizations and 570-800 deaths. Norovirus is also the most common cause of foodborne-disease outbreaks in the United States"

 

And this is similar to other counties. We once had the pleasure of meeting a CDC physician/trainer who happened to be on a RCI ship (to train the staff). During lunch we learned a lot about Noro. Most cruise ship problems start with folks being exposed to Noro on the airlines, airports, motels. etc. The virus is though to be generally carried aboard by passengers! Since most outbreaks ashore are never reported (it is not required) the cruise lines are the ones who get all the bad publicity. If everyone in a Ft Lauderdale Hotel gets infected with Noro....and then they go on various ships...nobody will ever know that the problem was at the motel/hotel.

 

The next issue is what to do to protect yourself! So here is a news bulletin. The best, most effective prevention, is to simply wash your hands (as often as possible with plain soap and water (for at least 30 seconds). Most alcohol hand sanitizers (like the stuff used on a majority of cruise ships) are nearly useless against the stubborn Noro virus. At one point we knew of a CDC official who thought cruise lines would be better served by eliminating hand sanitizers (they give a false sense of security) and pushing hand washing.

 

To HALs credit they have gone a step further then some of their competitors. They are now using Byotrol, which is a non-alcohol based product and claims to be somewhat effective against Noro. Byotrol also does not cause the dry skin often associated with alcohol based products.

 

The CDC physician told us he expected Noro to be a major cruise line problem until such a time as somebody develops a vaccine that is effective against Noro. The reason it is such an issue on cruise ships is that they are required to report outbreaks....while few land-based places must do the same. If there is an outbreak at a large University, it might never be known....other then the students will say "there is something going around." Or perhaps you will hear "everyone has a stomach virus." But when a few folks get Noro on a ship....it seem like the whole world hears about it.

 

So, since folks here on CC seem to like anecdotal tales..here is ours. DW and I have spent around 3 1/2 years cruising on 14 different cruise lines all over the world (except Antarctica). When we travel we wash our hands as often as possible, and also take advantage of the hand sanitizers often available on ships. And with all that travel (about 7 months a year) and cruises, neither of us have ever had Noro. So what does that mean? Probably nothing other then two frequent cruisers have never had Noro.

 

But for those that fret about Noro....just wash your hands often...and do not touch your face with your hands. If you do those two simple things...you will really improve the odds of not getting this nasty virus.

 

Hank

Edited January 19, 2014 by Hlitner

[goleta]

I retired from Disease Control at the local Health Dept. An outbreak of Noro is reportable here. An Outbreak does not count if only one household is involved unless others outside of that one home become ill after a function, eating out etc. Outbreaks at the local schools and university don't go unnoticed and are usually reported quickly by their respective medical departments. The same is true for Skilled Nursing and Assisted living facilities. Some of those are slow to report at times but they soon learn that they run the risk of being shut down to new admissions etc. The last one I worked on lasted 42 days.

I can see where Noro can come aboard from planes and hotels and that would be hard to track back.

We had a very large Noro Outbreak that involved almost every restaurant in a nearby tourist town (small town with about 20 restaurants) because staff worked at many of the restaurants. Hundreds of ill were reported from 8 states. It was a tremendous amount of work on top of all the other diseases that were reported each day! We had to take scores of people off work and actually close two restaurants and one hotel to stop the spread.

Sorry to ramble. I guess I miss it a little but not enough to come out of retirement.

[KirkNC]

I saw that story also. Must have been a slow news day. Media outlets seemed to have stopped reporting Noro outbreaks years ago.

 

That's was my take as well. Of course CNN said it was another blow to the industry :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

[GeriatricNurse]

Noro out break on RCI out of Miami,report in Miami news:eek:

Jim

 

What does this startling headline news have anything to do do with a HAL CCB? :confused: