You can get noro virus gastroenteritis on a cruise

You Can Get Noro Virus Gastroenteri Source: http://feelgoodtime.net/you-can-get- noro-virus-gastroenteritis-on-a-cruise/

You Can Get Noro Virus Gastroenteritis on a Cruise • Noro virus on cruise ships merits serious preventive and treatment scrutiny partly because cruises are decidedly big business. More importantly, the presence of the highly-contagious noro virus on cruise ships poses a grave health risk just as it does in any public venue where people are thrown together any length of time. • Adding to the difficulty of managing an outbreak of viral gastroenteritis caused by “Norwalk-like viruses” (NLV’s) or simply, the noro virus, on board cruise ships are three facts: • The first is that viral gastroenteritis is easily spread by simple physical contact, poor personal hygiene, inhaling dried vomitus particles, and intake of contaminated food or liquids. Even more ominously, physicians and morbidity watchers cannot ascertain the route of infection in nearly half the cases they encounter. • Secondly, the major symptoms of a norovirus infection – vomiting and diarrhea – are confusingly similar to other diseases that strike on board a cruise, like Salmonella. • While mortality in the general population is low – most healthy adults get over a self-limiting noro virus infection in three or four days – noro virus attacks can be fatal to cruise liner passengers because of the skew towards more susceptible older people. With retiree’s and the like in abundance, the passenger median age is just under 51 years. In principle, shipboard medical practitioners should cope ably with an outbreak of norovirus on cruise ships since their practice extends all the way to severe illness and trauma or injury. In practice, however, the fact that half the passengers are 52 years or older means a greater incidence of those weakened by, say, heart disorders or diabetes. Severe dehydration due to repeated vomiting and diarrhea can send such patients into critical care. Even worse, there is no cure or vaccine for the many strains of noro virus. • Were they to occur, therefore, outbreaks of norovirus on cruise ships would call for medical evacuation or disembarkation at the nearest port that has critical-care facilities.

Viral Gastroenteritis• The threat of norovirus on cruise ships is amplified by the fact that it survives casual sanitation (chlorine diluted to 10 PPM) and, with a viable temperature range of 0º to 60º C, on both Alaskan or Norwegian cruises as well as those amid searing Caribbean climates.• That outbreaks of norovirus do not occur more often on cruise liners can be attributed to rigid environmental disinfection before, during and after a voyage. With cruise tickets going for around $1,000 a pax, passengers have every right to expect a safe and sanitary environment. Little do they know that rigid standards of shipboard sanitation are imposed by, among others, cruise industry rules, the Vessel Sanitation Program of the CDC, and international maritime guidelines. Cooperative effort is also vital. Carrying hundreds of fairly affluent passengers as they do, ships’ officers, F&B, Housekeeping, Engineering, Medical and Environmental departments all cooperate to forestall the spread of contagious diseases, like norovirus, on cruise ships.• And when an outbreak of gastroenteritis does occur, ships’ physicians know that containment depends on imposing both quarantine and rigid hand washing regulations on passengers and crew alike. All told, the chances of contracting noro virus on cruise ships is decidedly infinitesimal. But if a case or two do present themselves, it is comforting to know that ships’ physicians and other shipboard heads are on the ball about quarantine and other contagion containment measures.

You can get noro virus gastroenteritis on a cruise

by FeelGoodTime.net on Sep 10, 2012

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You can get noro virus gastroenteritis on a cruise Presentation Transcript