Media Notes 1:
Norovirus Outbreaks on Cruises

Recently Nicholas Bakalar released an article on-possible- foodborne illness outbreaks-presumably norovirus- on cruise ships. Bakalar’s article discusses statistics of these outbreaks, how they may have come to be, and attempts being made to prevent outbreaks. Royal Caribbean cruise ship lines have had 2 large outbreaks just with in the last month. A total of 792 people were reported sick. The most common cause of the outbreak is norovirus, and that is also what is known to have caused these last 2 outbreaks. According to the article, about 14 cruise ships have had outbreaks pointing towards norovirus in the last five years. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention claim that norovirus grows in closed areas but makes its way to food and beverages through contamination. Norovirus goes away fairly quickly in most cases, and is generally not too severe, but it does cause diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, and abdominal craps and 792 people with in one month is a lot of people affected. In order to prevent the spread of this virus through contamination, it is encouraged that passengers wash their hands frequently and after completing certain tasks. Jan Vinjé, head of the National Calicivirus Laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, blames the passengers, claiming that they bring on the virus, which causes it to spread. Although, I would say it is their responsibility to ensure that everything is sanitary, including cleaning up after guests, in order to prevent contamination. Another source in Bakalar’s article is Dr. Philip C. Carling, a clinical professor of medicine at Boston University, says the reason for the spread of the virus is because of improper cleaning. The ships are also not inspected for norovirus, but the ships are inspected for food stored at the improper temperature and dirty cookware, some inspections for this have failed and have has norovirus. Although many ships get a good grade for inspection, they tend to continue to have many outbreaks, possibly indicating these inspections aren’t all that great.

This article discusses components, which have been discussed or seen in the Serve Safe book and in class. Although the sources of the outbreaks have not been directly linked back to food, there have been links back to unsanitary food prepping, or holding areas and cookware. In class and in the book, we have discussed viruses, pathogens, and diseases that can be commonly seen in food, one of these being norovirus. The virus is commonly traced back to food or restaurants due to contamination. In the article, it is noted that some Royal Caribbean cruise lines have failed inspections on food storage and cookware. From further research, it is known that on cruise lines there are often buffets, considering the way said to prevent the virus is through sanitation, it is safe to assume contamination happened from improper sanitation while serving the food.

It is also brought to the readers attention that passengers are to blame for the outbreak, although this may be true, it is the duty of the staff on the cruise ship and in the kitchens to properly sanitize everything they can in order to prevent viruses from spreading but considering 729 people have gotten sick in the last month, it