Norovirus

You will probably not experience this notorious bug but you may have heard about it. Norovirus is a highly contagious gastrointestinal virus that causes moderate flu-like symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal cramps. Commonly known as "stomach flu," other symptoms include a mild fever and headache. It's spread through contaminated food and water or from objects touched by infected people. It takes from one to three days for its symptoms to appear and then typically lasts from 24 to 48 hours.

There have been widespread outbreaks of this virus throughout North America and Europe usually during the winter flu season. It spreads in closed places that attract a lot of people like schools, theatres and hotels and has been a particular problem for cruise ships. Starting on Alaska cruises it has spread to other regions and cruise lines are taking preventative measures to avoid further outbeaks onboard. These measures include increased cleansing programmes and the complete sanitisation of ships where repeated incidents have occurred but it is unlikely that outbreaks can be completely avoided.

The measures that you can take to protect yourself, particularly if there is an outbreak, include:

• washing your hands often.
• avoiding uncooked food such as salads
• drinking bottled water and avoiding ice cubes
• using you cabin bathroom rather than the public washrooms.

• suggest that guests who have flu-like symptoms remain in their stateroom and contact the onboard medical centre - doctor's fees would not normally be charged in these circumstances
• circulate a list of precautionary tips to passengers
• clean even more thoroughly than usual - with stronger solvents
• report outbreaks to the port authorities.