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Second Cruise Line Experiences Strange Stomach Virus at Sea
Aired December 02, 2002 - 10:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We come back to the U.S. for other news this morning, another cruise and apparently another group of sick passengers.
Carnival Cruise Lines' Fascination returned to port this morning with dozens of people on board reporting some kind of a stomach bug.
Our national correspondent, Susan Candiotti, joins us now from Miami. She has been checking on this story for us this morning.
Hello -- Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon. It is a very busy morning, as it is every Monday morning here at the Port of Miami. You see a lot of people over my shoulder, who are returning from a cruise on a different cruise line, not Carnival.
However, earlier this day, the Fascination did come into port before dawn, and aboard, 175 passengers and crew who came down with some kind of stomach problem, a gastrointestinal illness of -- and let's keep in this perspective -- of a total 3,300 people aboard that ship.
Now, this is only a three-day cruise to the Bahamas. It left on Friday, and people started getting sick, according to the cruise line, yesterday, on Sunday, and the ship came back into port, as we said, today.
Carnival Cruise Lines says it is treating this as though it is a Norwalk-like virus, the very same virus that impacted three other cruise lines -- or two other cruise lines besides Carnival, you also had Holland America and Disney -- and a total of about 1,000 people contracting this illness over the past several weeks aboard these different cruise ships.
Now, the plan is to turn this ship around to disinfect it, under the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control, and the ship is due to depart this afternoon on a four-day cruise to Key West and Cozumel. Ad because there is such short notice about this, passengers who are set to cruise this afternoon will be notified when they arrive at the port terminal, unless they're hearing it on the news. Carnival tells us anyone who is scheduled to leave this afternoon can cancel their cruise with a full refund if they wish, or reschedule their cruise for a later time.
We are in touch with the Centers for Disease Control. They will be here at some point during the day.
And again, to step back and look at this from a broader perspective, the Centers for Disease Control says that these Norwalk- like viruses are nearly as common as the common cold, and it does spread mainly from person-to-person. It can spread through food or water. However, authorities tell us they have no indication that there has been any problem with the food or water supply on any of these cruise ships.
So, again, it could be passengers getting on board with it, crew members, they could be picking it somewhere else. But clearly, it's spreading. And so, they're going to be looking over the situation here this day, and we do hope to hear from Carnival Cruise Lines' president. He is considering holding a news conference later on this day -- Leon.
HARRIS: Susan, quickly one question. Any idea of how closely any of these ships may have been in contact with each other? I mean, are they all docked in the same area? Because we're talking about three different cruise lines, but possibly the same kind of virus. Are they all docked in the same areas?
CANDIOTTI: Well, they can be, except in this case, this ship left and came back to the Port of Miami. Disney's Magic, you will remember, left from around the Orlando area, Port Canaveral. And Holland America's Amsterdam was leaving from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, so three different ports.
And we were told that the crews, at least in the case of Holland America and Carnival, both are owned by Carnival Cruise Line, but we're told the crews do not exchange places on ships. They're kept separate.
HARRIS: Oh, interesting. And so, the mystery therefore again thickens. Susan Candiotti in Miami this morning -- thanks, Susan. We'll check back with you later on.
CANDIOTTI: You're welcome.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
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Aired December 2, 2002 - 10:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We come back to the U.S. for other news this morning, another cruise and apparently another group of sick passengers.
Carnival Cruise Lines' Fascination returned to port this morning with dozens of people on board reporting some kind of a stomach bug.
Our national correspondent, Susan Candiotti, joins us now from Miami. She has been checking on this story for us this morning.
Hello -- Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon. It is a very busy morning, as it is every Monday morning here at the Port of Miami. You see a lot of people over my shoulder, who are returning from a cruise on a different cruise line, not Carnival.
However, earlier this day, the Fascination did come into port before dawn, and aboard, 175 passengers and crew who came down with some kind of stomach problem, a gastrointestinal illness of -- and let's keep in this perspective -- of a total 3,300 people aboard that ship.
Now, this is only a three-day cruise to the Bahamas. It left on Friday, and people started getting sick, according to the cruise line, yesterday, on Sunday, and the ship came back into port, as we said, today.
Carnival Cruise Lines says it is treating this as though it is a Norwalk-like virus, the very same virus that impacted three other cruise lines -- or two other cruise lines besides Carnival, you also had Holland America and Disney -- and a total of about 1,000 people contracting this illness over the past several weeks aboard these different cruise ships.
Now, the plan is to turn this ship around to disinfect it, under the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control, and the ship is due to depart this afternoon on a four-day cruise to Key West and Cozumel. Ad because there is such short notice about this, passengers who are set to cruise this afternoon will be notified when they arrive at the port terminal, unless they're hearing it on the news. Carnival tells us anyone who is scheduled to leave this afternoon can cancel their cruise with a full refund if they wish, or reschedule their cruise for a later time.
We are in touch with the Centers for Disease Control. They will be here at some point during the day.
And again, to step back and look at this from a broader perspective, the Centers for Disease Control says that these Norwalk- like viruses are nearly as common as the common cold, and it does spread mainly from person-to-person. It can spread through food or water. However, authorities tell us they have no indication that there has been any problem with the food or water supply on any of these cruise ships.
So, again, it could be passengers getting on board with it, crew members, they could be picking it somewhere else. But clearly, it's spreading. And so, they're going to be looking over the situation here this day, and we do hope to hear from Carnival Cruise Lines' president. He is considering holding a news conference later on this day -- Leon.
HARRIS: Susan, quickly one question. Any idea of how closely any of these ships may have been in contact with each other? I mean, are they all docked in the same area? Because we're talking about three different cruise lines, but possibly the same kind of virus. Are they all docked in the same areas?
CANDIOTTI: Well, they can be, except in this case, this ship left and came back to the Port of Miami. Disney's Magic, you will remember, left from around the Orlando area, Port Canaveral. And Holland America's Amsterdam was leaving from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, so three different ports.
And we were told that the crews, at least in the case of Holland America and Carnival, both are owned by Carnival Cruise Line, but we're told the crews do not exchange places on ships. They're kept separate.
HARRIS: Oh, interesting. And so, the mystery therefore again thickens. Susan Candiotti in Miami this morning -- thanks, Susan. We'll check back with you later on.
CANDIOTTI: You're welcome.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
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