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CNN Live Today

Another Cruise Ship Struck with Illness

Aired December 03, 2002 - 11:36   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: The CDC is investigating the latest outbreak of stomach illness aboard a cruise ship. Now, this time, officials think salmonella is the culprit. That is a different illness than the other outbreaks that we have been talking about. In the meantime, a Carnival Cruise has set sail again after an illness outbreak on its last voyage, and our Mark Potter is standing by in Miami, and he has got the latest on all these sick ships down there -- hello, Mark.
MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon. The cruise ship Fascination, which left Miami last night, is now in Key West with about 2,100 passengers aboard. It will set sail later this afternoon for Cozumel as part of a four-day trip. Company officials say so far, there are no reports of stomach-related illnesses on this new cruise.

Now, yesterday, of course, it was a much different story. The fascination arrived in Miami with 203 passengers and crew members reporting gastrointestinal illnesses. Ship workers spent the entire day trying to disinfect the ship, but cruise company officials say despite their best efforts, there are no guarantees that passengers will not get sick on this new cruise, given that the suspected cause is a common and very aggressive virus that can be carried aboard by passengers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB DICKINSON, PRESIDENT, CARNIVAL CRUISE LINES: I would submit to you that last Friday morning was perfectly sanitized. Somebody comes on board with a virus, any efforts that you have to, up to that time, are for naught. So there's no cause and effect here. I think we're all looking for a silver bullet that says you do this and you'll never have the problem again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POTTER: Now, company officials say that the suspected culprit in this case is a Norwalk-like virus which infected about 1,000 passengers recently on two other cruise ships, the Disney Magic and the Holland America Amsterdam. CDC officials, however, are still studying the Fascination outbreak, noting that it began and spread more quickly than the other cases. Now in another matter, health officials say that a reported outbreak of gastrointestinal illnesses on yet another cruise ship, the Seven Seas Mariner is relatively minor. The ship arrived in Fort Lauderdale yesterday from Europe with five passengers and 16 crew members having been infected with salmonella, apparently from food that may have been picked up on a port call. This is not a viral outbreak, as in the other cases -- Leon, back to you.

HARRIS: All right. Good deal, thanks Mark. Mark Potter reporting for us live in Miami. We want to talk some more, though, about these ship-borne illnesses.

Our Elizabeth Cohen -- Elizabeth Dose. "Daily Dose," Elizabeth Cohen, is here with that to talk some more about this latest outbreak on the Seven Seas Mariner, this case being a case of salmonella. Much different, but it's a heck of a coincidence, is it not, to have all these things happening at one time.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, and it seems very confusing. You have got so many different outbreaks. I want to try to explain this a bit. The outbreaks, up until now, up until the Seven Seas one, have been Norwalk-like virus, which is a very, very common, basically a stomach flu virus. Many people have it. We all -- you go to work. People are out with the stomach flu. Well, chances are that's probably a Norwalk-like virus. This one is different. This is salmonella, it is not person to person, it is something that you get from food. We talked to the CDC's David Forney earlier about this illness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID FORNEY, CDC: Again, this case, it is, from our discussions with the cruise line, is confirmed to be salmonella, and it's pretty well confined to a small number of crew, with 16. And so I think it's a very different scenario than what we've been seeing on the other ships here in the U.S. already.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So again, as Mark Potter mentioned, it's thought that people on a port call went to a restaurant, got salmonella, got back on the boat. The incubation period is about 12-72 hours. So when they got sick, they were on the ship, so it looks as if the ship is at fault, when it might have been foods that they came in on. So the Norwalk-like virus -- the culprit could just be that every time you have a new cruise, you have thousands of people coming in on a ship who have never been there. If any one of them has the Norwalk-like virus, they can start sort of a mini-epidemic on the ship, so I think it's important for people to remember, it's not necessarily the ship that's the problem, it's the carriers, the people who come in on it with an illness, or food that was eaten even off the ship.

HARRIS: Real quickly -- Norwalk, Salmonella, either one of them dangerous?

COHEN: They could be dangerous. I mean, salmonella kills about a thousand people in the United States every year. Elderly people, infants, those with impaired immune systems, so yes, salmonella can kill. Most of the time, it doesn't and most of the time, neither does Norwalk-like virus. You just feel horrible.

HARRIS: All right. Just -- so be careful, folks, and do something about it the minute you get any symptoms, all right? COHEN: That's right.

HARRIS: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks for the "Daily Dose."

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired December 3, 2002 - 11:36   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The CDC is investigating the latest outbreak of stomach illness aboard a cruise ship. Now, this time, officials think salmonella is the culprit. That is a different illness than the other outbreaks that we have been talking about. In the meantime, a Carnival Cruise has set sail again after an illness outbreak on its last voyage, and our Mark Potter is standing by in Miami, and he has got the latest on all these sick ships down there -- hello, Mark.
MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon. The cruise ship Fascination, which left Miami last night, is now in Key West with about 2,100 passengers aboard. It will set sail later this afternoon for Cozumel as part of a four-day trip. Company officials say so far, there are no reports of stomach-related illnesses on this new cruise.

Now, yesterday, of course, it was a much different story. The fascination arrived in Miami with 203 passengers and crew members reporting gastrointestinal illnesses. Ship workers spent the entire day trying to disinfect the ship, but cruise company officials say despite their best efforts, there are no guarantees that passengers will not get sick on this new cruise, given that the suspected cause is a common and very aggressive virus that can be carried aboard by passengers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB DICKINSON, PRESIDENT, CARNIVAL CRUISE LINES: I would submit to you that last Friday morning was perfectly sanitized. Somebody comes on board with a virus, any efforts that you have to, up to that time, are for naught. So there's no cause and effect here. I think we're all looking for a silver bullet that says you do this and you'll never have the problem again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POTTER: Now, company officials say that the suspected culprit in this case is a Norwalk-like virus which infected about 1,000 passengers recently on two other cruise ships, the Disney Magic and the Holland America Amsterdam. CDC officials, however, are still studying the Fascination outbreak, noting that it began and spread more quickly than the other cases. Now in another matter, health officials say that a reported outbreak of gastrointestinal illnesses on yet another cruise ship, the Seven Seas Mariner is relatively minor. The ship arrived in Fort Lauderdale yesterday from Europe with five passengers and 16 crew members having been infected with salmonella, apparently from food that may have been picked up on a port call. This is not a viral outbreak, as in the other cases -- Leon, back to you.

HARRIS: All right. Good deal, thanks Mark. Mark Potter reporting for us live in Miami. We want to talk some more, though, about these ship-borne illnesses.

Our Elizabeth Cohen -- Elizabeth Dose. "Daily Dose," Elizabeth Cohen, is here with that to talk some more about this latest outbreak on the Seven Seas Mariner, this case being a case of salmonella. Much different, but it's a heck of a coincidence, is it not, to have all these things happening at one time.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, and it seems very confusing. You have got so many different outbreaks. I want to try to explain this a bit. The outbreaks, up until now, up until the Seven Seas one, have been Norwalk-like virus, which is a very, very common, basically a stomach flu virus. Many people have it. We all -- you go to work. People are out with the stomach flu. Well, chances are that's probably a Norwalk-like virus. This one is different. This is salmonella, it is not person to person, it is something that you get from food. We talked to the CDC's David Forney earlier about this illness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID FORNEY, CDC: Again, this case, it is, from our discussions with the cruise line, is confirmed to be salmonella, and it's pretty well confined to a small number of crew, with 16. And so I think it's a very different scenario than what we've been seeing on the other ships here in the U.S. already.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So again, as Mark Potter mentioned, it's thought that people on a port call went to a restaurant, got salmonella, got back on the boat. The incubation period is about 12-72 hours. So when they got sick, they were on the ship, so it looks as if the ship is at fault, when it might have been foods that they came in on. So the Norwalk-like virus -- the culprit could just be that every time you have a new cruise, you have thousands of people coming in on a ship who have never been there. If any one of them has the Norwalk-like virus, they can start sort of a mini-epidemic on the ship, so I think it's important for people to remember, it's not necessarily the ship that's the problem, it's the carriers, the people who come in on it with an illness, or food that was eaten even off the ship.

HARRIS: Real quickly -- Norwalk, Salmonella, either one of them dangerous?

COHEN: They could be dangerous. I mean, salmonella kills about a thousand people in the United States every year. Elderly people, infants, those with impaired immune systems, so yes, salmonella can kill. Most of the time, it doesn't and most of the time, neither does Norwalk-like virus. You just feel horrible.

HARRIS: All right. Just -- so be careful, folks, and do something about it the minute you get any symptoms, all right? COHEN: That's right.

HARRIS: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks for the "Daily Dose."

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com