A gastrointestinal illness outbreak affected nine passengers and three crew members aboard a small cruise ship during a six-day trip in Southeast Alaska that ended on May 31, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The outbreak occurred aboard Lindblad Expeditions’ National Geographic Sea Bird, a 152-foot-long ship with room for 62 guests and 30 crew members, during a voyage departing Juneau on May 26 and arrived in Sitka on May 31, according to the CDC.
The Sea Bird was in Wrangell on May 28.
The ship reported the outbreak to the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) on May 28, with the predominant symptoms being vomiting and diarrhea. The cause is unknown.
“Norovirus is often a cause of gastrointestinal illness outbreaks on cruise ships, but we don’t always know the cause of the outbreak when we begin an investigation,” the CDC report of June 1 stated. “Finding the agent that caused an outbreak (causative agent) can take time.”
The agency stated that in response to the outbreak, the crew and company “increased cleaning and disinfection procedures according to their outbreak prevention and response plan.” Also, ill passengers and crew were isolated, and Lindblad Expeditions “consulted with VSP about sanitation cleaning procedures and reporting ill cases.”
“VSP remotely monitored the situation, including review of the ship’s outbreak response and sanitation procedure,” the CDC report added.
The ship departed Sitka as planned and made its scheduled stop in Wrangell on Monday, June 1, and is on the calendar to return to Wrangell on June 8 and five more times this summer.
Lindblad Expeditions did not respond on June 2 to questions from the Juneau Independent.
There have been five GI outbreaks recorded by the CDC aboard cruise ships this year. None of the other outbreaks occurred in Alaska.
