Over 140 guests, crew sick due to a gastrointestinal outbreak on this popular cruise line

More than 140 radical got sick successful a gastrointestinal unwellness outbreak during a Royal Caribbean International cruise.

Among the 3,914 guests aboard its Navigator of the Seas ship, 134 reported being sick during a cruise that ended July 11, on with 7 unit members, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their main symptoms were vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhea.

The wellness bureau listed the causative cause arsenic unknown. The vessel was sailing a week-long cruise to Mexico round-trip from Los Angeles, according to CruiseMapper.

The cruise enactment implemented heightened disinfection and cleaning measures and isolated sick guests and crew, among different steps, the CDC said.

“The wellness and information of our guests, crew, and the communities we sojourn are our apical priority,” a spokesperson for Royal Caribbean Group, the line’s genitor company, told USA TODAY successful an emailed statement. “To support an situation that supports the highest levels of wellness and information onboard our ships, we instrumentality rigorous cleaning procedures, galore of which acold transcend nationalist wellness guidelines.”

There person been 18 outbreaks of gastrointestinal unwellness connected cruises that met the CDC’s threshold for nationalist notification successful 2025, astir of which were caused by norovirus. There were 18 outbreaks full past year, and 14 successful 2023.

The CDC told USA TODAY successful April that portion “the fig of caller cruise vessel outbreaks has been higher than successful years anterior to the pandemic, we bash not yet cognize if this represents a caller trend.”

“However, CDC information amusement a recently ascendant strain is presently associated with reported norovirus outbreaks connected land,” the bureau said successful an emailed statement. “Ships typically travel the signifier of land-based outbreaks, which are higher this norovirus season.”

The unwellness is often associated with cruise ships, but those correspond lone 1% of each outbreaks reported.

Nathan Diller is simply a user question newsman for USA TODAY based successful Nashville. You tin scope him astatine [email protected].

This nonfiction primitively appeared connected USA TODAY: 140+ sick successful Royal Caribbean cruise gastrointestinal outbreak