Coughs, Colds and Norovirus – who’s to blame?

When we cruise we expect the highest level of service for the monies that we have paid and expect the ship to be spic and span to rule out the risk of any illness whilst on board. As all cruisers are aware, they are required to fill out a declaration form at time of check in to confirm that they are fit to travel.

These forms ask questions, such as have you had a stomach upset or a cough or cold like symptoms leading up to your cruise. Most recently,  some questions have changed to rule out the possibility of Ebola. Asking if you have travelled to or been in contact with anyone from Ebola affected countries.

Now these questions are important and those that maybe disguise the truth, could end up being blamed for an outbreak of illness once on board. Cruise ships, no matter how large, are still a confined space with lots of passengers and staff on board and illness can spread very quickly throughout.

In the very rare instances that occur, if you was to be taken ill on-board with a contagious illness, means that under the ship doctors and captains rule, you will be confined to your cabin until they feel you are free from infection. This can mean days inside with no contact to the other areas of the ship or other passengers and missing out on ports of call. Not a great way to spend your holiday.

Recently, before boarding the Queen Mary, we was asked to delay our check in as there had been an outbreak of norovirus on the sailing before ours and the ship needed to be ‘deep cleaned’ before they could allow any other guests to board. Great news, eliminating any further risk of illness.

Those whom have cruised will also know that wherever you go around all cruise ships, in all public areas, there will be hand sanitizer available, either freestanding or with a member of the crew to squirt in your hands, especially before entering any areas containing food.

These hand sanitizers are also at the foot of each gangway for disembarking and embarking the ship at any port and at the process once on the ship for re boarding when checking your cruise card, normally watched again by a member of crew to make sure you have sanitized.

However, yesterday evening I spoke with a guest whom had just returned from the same ship having cruised a part of the world sector from Dubai to Singapore. Visiting some fantastic Asian cities during the voyage, my guest and his wife was unfortunately struck down with a nasty  cold that was doing the rounds whilst on board and this meant that they lost several days of their trip due to being poorly. My guest, stuck in his cabin during a day in port was sat on his balcony and overlooked the gangways for guests and crew disembarking the ship. My guest observed that all the guests sanitized before climbing the gangway, but crew did not. He then decided to check wherever he was on or off the ship if the crew sanitized their hands and noticed that at every port of call from this day, not one member of the crew used the sanitzer like the guests did.

So who is responsible for the outbreak of colds, flu or norovirus? Surely blame cannot be laid at the fault of just the guests, if the crew are on these ships for months on end, visiting exotic locations like the guests and fail to use the simple method of sanitizing their hands in public areas, how sure are we that they are constantly sanitizing away from the paying guests to help eliminate the risk of virus on board?

It should be the same rule for all guest and crew when the health of all is at risk and the crew should be monitored in the same way the guests are. I will now for each cruise I sail, check to see if I notice that staff/crew are using the sanitizers too and if I see that they are not, I shall ask them why not…

Is this something that you have noticed before, or even thought about?

Dawn

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