Investigation Update on the Island Princess

Cruise Line: Princess Cruises

Cruise Ship: Island Princess

Voyage Dates: January 9–24, 2018

Number of passengers who have reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of passengers onboard: 71 of 2,181 (3.26%)

Number of crew who have reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of crew onboard: 7 of 898 (0.78%)

Predominant symptoms: diarrhea

Causative agent: norovirus and Campylobacter

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

• Increasing cleaning and disinfection procedures according to their outbreak prevention and response plan.
• Collecting stool specimens from passenger and crew gastrointestinal illness cases for testing.
• Making twice-daily reports of gastrointestinal illness cases to VSP.
• Consulting with CDC on plans for their comprehensive sanitation procedures in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on January 24, 2018, including planned staged disembarkation for active cases to limit the opportunity of illness transmission to well guests and planned sanitation of terminal and transportation infection control procedures.

Three CDC Vessel Sanitation Program environmental health officers and one epidemiologist will board the ship in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on January 24, 2018, to conduct an environmental health assessment and evaluate the outbreak and response activities. Specimens were collected and tested onboard using a norovirus rapid test; results were positive for norovirus. The specimens will be sent to CDC for additional testing.

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.