Investigation Update on the Celebrity Infinity

Cruise Line: Celebrity Cruises

Cruise Ship: Celebrity Infinity

Voyage Dates: April 17–May 2, 2018

Number of passengers who have reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of passengers onboard: 111 of 2,140 (5.19%)

Number of crew who have reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of crew onboard: 7 of 970 (0.72%)

Predominant symptoms: vomiting, diarrhea

Causative agent: norovirus

Actions: In response to the outbreak, Celebrity Cruises and the crew aboard the ship reported the following actions:

• Increasing cleaning and disinfection procedures according to their outbreak prevention and response plan.
• Making announcements to notify onboard passengers and crew of the outbreak, encourage case reporting, and encourage good hand hygiene.
• Collecting clinical specimens from passenger and crew gastrointestinal illness cases for testing by CDC.
• Making twice-daily reports of gastrointestinal illness cases to VSP.
• Sending corporate personnel to assist the onboard management with infection control response plan.

A CDC Vessel Sanitation Program epidemiologist and two environmental health officers will board the ship in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, on May 2, 2018, to conduct an environmental health assessment and evaluate the outbreak and response activities. Specimens have been collected and will be sent to CDC for testing to determine the causative agent for this outbreak.

Note: The gastrointestinal illness cases reported are totals for the entire voyage and do not represent the number of active (symptomatic) gastrointestinal cases at any given port of call or at disembarkation.