Medical Question Monday

For the past couple of weeks at work, one of our current events topics has been the virus outbreaks on cruise ships.  It seems like almost every week we hear about a cruise ship where hundreds of their passengers get the the Norwolk virus. I asked our resident travel expert, Diva Stacy, and did some extensive research on the Norwolk virus, and here's what we found:

The virus is in a strain of the Noroviruses, and is often called Norwalk Virus, named after the original strain which caused an outbreak of gastroenteritis in a school in Norwalk, Ohio in 1968.  The virus is spread through food and water or contact with infected people. A cruise, where hundreds of passengers and crew mingle in close quarters, can provide ideal conditions for a virus to spread. Though not life-threatening, the bug can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea for one to three days.  With the media today, we're quick to hear about a cruise line having one of it ship's in dry dock because three or four hundred passengers have gotten the Norwalk virus.  But when you look at the whole picture, it's not quite that alarming, given the fact that the outbreaks have affected fewer than 1 percent of all cruise passengers.

Here's Diva Stacy's professional and personal thoughs on the Norwalk virus:  The Norwalk stomach virus thing is big on the cruise ships because you have a very large group of people quarantined into one isolated area for a week or longer.  People get sick, touch the door knobs, hand rails in the halls, etc and other people come behind them and pick it up.  When we took our Disney cruise, hen we were leaving the registration area and walking the hallway to the gang plank of the Disney Ship, there were workers stopping everyone and asking them to take a handwipe and sanitize their hands.  This, in an attempt to keep disease from making it to the ship in the first place.  Also, thereis now hand sanitizer at the entrance to every restaurant on board and kids who participate in the Kids Club must sanitize their hands before entering and on the way out.  On Disney, they also wipe down the handrails in the halls every day with disinfectant.  It's not related to contaminated food or anything like that, just people passing it around and not being able to get away from it.