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- More than 13% of passengers on board the Viking Neptune this month fell ill with norovirus, the CDC said.
- The health agency has already logged 13 outbreaks of the contagious virus on cruise ships this year.
- Stomach bugs are on the rise as the cruise industry rebounds following Covid-19.
The Viking Neptune transformed into a cross-continental petri dish as more than 100 passengers onboard the cruise ship fell ill with the highly contagious norovirus this month.
In a Tuesday update, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 110 cruisers — more than 13% of the ship’s 838 passengers — were affected by the gastrointestinal virus during the vessel’s two-week trip from Iceland to New York, which ended Tuesday.
The CDC has already logged 13 outbreaks of norovirus on cruise ships in the first half of this year — the most since 2016, which saw the same number of outbreaks across 12 months.
Nine crew members, or nearly two percent of the ship’s staff, also reported being ill during the voyage, which included stops in Greenland and Canada.
Those who were sick experienced abdominal cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea, according to the CDC.
Viking Cruises told the health agency that its crew on board the ship increased cleaning and disinfection procedures in response to the outbreak, and collected stool specimens from the sick to send to a CDC lab for pathogenic identification.
Vessel Sanitation Program officials with the CDC boarded the ship after it docked in New York and conducted an environmental health assessment, the agency said.
Viking did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Stomach bugs aboard densely-packed ships are on the rise again as the cruise industry rebounds following the coronavirus pandemic. Only four outbreaks were recorded in the whole of 2022 due to fewer people on ships.
Gastrointestinal illnesses have long been frequent guests aboard cruise ships, where cramped quarters allow germs to spread easily, and the highly contagious norovirus is the most notorious cruise ship culprit.
In March, more than 300 people on board a Princess Cruise ship fell ill with the virus, and another outbreak hit 177 people traveling on a Celebrity Cruise ship earlier this month.
The CDC recommends people wash their hands often while aboard cruise ships to prevent the spread of germs.
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