About 225 passengers on the Norwegian Cruise Line ship Pride of
Hawaii were infected with norovirus, a highly contagious stomach
flu, according to media reports Wednesday.
For a seven-day voyage, passengers were aboard the ship on Nov.
5, with nine percent of whom reporting to the medical center
Tuesday with symptoms of nausea, stomach cramps and mild
diarrhea.
After the ship docked back in port in Honolulu, immediate
laboratory tests were carried out in the Hawaii Department of
Health. Janice Okubo, the department's spokesman, announced that
there were no doubts as to the origination of the disease.
In January, 300 passengers aboard the Queen Elizabeth II came
down with the norovirus just before the ship docked in
Honolulu.
In June last year, 60 passengers aboard NCL's Pride of Aloha got
sick.
And in February 2003, 300 passengers and crew members aboard the
Sun Princess got sick.
Norovirus or Norwalk-Like Virus (NLV), which sometimes is called
stomach flu or gastroenteritis, can be classified as a group of
viruses among which there can be singled out at least five
genogroups: GI, GII, GIII, GIV and GV, and each group has at least
30 subgroups.
It is called Norwalk-Like Virus after an outbreak at an
elementary school in Norwalk, Ohio, in 1968 and is considered to be
a highly contagious germ, by the Centers for Disease Control of
U.S.?
It is a kind of infectious disease, outbreaks of which can be
viewed in many public places such as nursing homes, schools, cruise
ships and hospitals.
(Agencies via Xinhua November 14, 2007)