I must announce with great sadness that it’s time to set the ‘days since last cruise ship gastro outbreak’ sign back to ‘0’, with a vessel docking in Brisbane tomorrow bringing with it around 200 people afflicted with the unpleasant malady.
According to the ABC, Princess Cruises vessel The Sea Princess was returning home from a return trip to New Zealand when the outbreak struck. A spokesperson from Queensland Health confirmed that they’d detected the presence of norovirus on the ship:
Around 200 people were believed to have been infected with the virus. Appropriate sanitation procedures and outbreak control measures have been implemented and the vessel is expected to undergo further comprehensive cleaning while in Brisbane.
Princess Cruises has emailed passengers telling them that the vessel is will undergo a “comprehensive sanitation program in coordination with several international public health authorities“, which I’m sure will go a long way to comfort the people who haven’t been able to leave the toilet for 24 hours.
Australia saw a spate of these last year. There were two cases in February, one affecting around 140 people, the other around 90. Another 90 people saw themselves afflicted with the Devil’s Bowels in August, followed by yet another incident in late October / early November which saw a comparatively trifling 18 people piss right out of their buttholes. All capped off by 200 people being treated for gastro in Hobart after their vessel docked in early December.
All we can do is politely suggest that you use hand sanitiser when you’re in a relatively confined environment jam-packed with people.
