• Greater than 13% of passengers on board the Viking Neptune this month fell ailing with norovirus, the CDC mentioned.
• The well being company has already logged 13 outbreaks of the contagious virus on cruise ships this yr.
• Abdomen bugs are on the rise because the cruise trade rebounds following Covid-19.

The Viking Neptune reworked right into a cross-continental petri dish as greater than 100 passengers onboard the cruise ship fell ailing with the extremely contagious norovirus this month.

In a Tuesday replace, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention mentioned 110 cruisers — greater than 13% of the ship’s 838 passengers — had been affected by the gastrointestinal virus through the vessel’s two-week journey from Iceland to New York, which ended Tuesday.

The CDC has already logged 13 outbreaks of norovirus on cruise ships within the first half of this yr — essentially the most since 2016, which noticed the identical variety of outbreaks throughout 12 months.

9 crew members, or practically two % of the ship’s workers, additionally reported being ailing through the voyage, which included stops in Greenland and Canada. 

Those that had been sick skilled stomach cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea, in keeping with the CDC. 

Viking Cruises advised the well being company that its crew on board the ship elevated cleansing and disinfection procedures in response to the outbreak, and picked up stool specimens from the sick to ship to a CDC lab for pathogenic identification. 

Vessel Sanitation Program officers with the CDC boarded the ship after it docked in New York and performed an environmental well being evaluation, the company mentioned. 

Viking didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s request for remark. 

Abdomen bugs aboard densely-packed ships are on the rise once more because the cruise trade rebounds following the coronavirus pandemic. Solely 4 outbreaks had been recorded in the entire of 2022 attributable to fewer folks on ships. 

Gastrointestinal sicknesses have lengthy been frequent visitors aboard cruise ships, the place cramped quarters permit germs to unfold simply, and the extremely contagious norovirus is essentially the most infamous cruise ship perpetrator.

In March, greater than 300 folks on board a Princess Cruise ship fell ailing with the virus, and one other outbreak hit 177 folks touring on a Superstar Cruise ship earlier this month.

The CDC recommends folks wash their palms usually whereas aboard cruise ships to forestall the unfold of germs.