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CNN Saturday Morning News
Hundreds Sick Aboard Disney Magic Ship
Aired November 23, 2002 - 08:12 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.
KRIS OSBORN, CNN ANCHOR: And we are now going to return to the sick bay. A Disney cruise ship is back in Florida this morning with as many as 200 sick people aboard. The Magic, of course, is the latest cruise ship to experience a wave of illness. The Holland America had several outbreaks and is currently undergoing a thorough scrubbing.
CNN's Miles O'Brien is live from Port Canaveral, Florida with more on the Disney ship -- good morning, Miles.
Anything further on when we might hear an official word about what this illness was?
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kris, we're going to hear from Disney officials at about 9:00 Eastern, about 45 minutes from now. We hope they'll shed a little more light on it. Right now they've been pretty tight-lipped about all of this, Disney very careful about its image, as we all well know, and thus not talking much about what went on on board the Magic, which you see behind me.
It docked here at Port Canaveral about 5:30 this morning. We haven't seen any passengers come off. We expect them to come off shortly. We will try to talk to a few of them and at least get a brief picture anecdotally of what went on on board a trip that I'm sure many people would describe as quite miserable.
Approaching 200 people, passengers and crew, got terribly sick starting on Wednesday, as the Magic conducted its usual week long cruise through the Bahamas and on into the Caribbean and Saint Martin. The symptoms are terrible. It's a really bad case of the flu, essentially, is what you would think it to be -- stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. I probably could go on, but I will spare you those details this morning as you're having your breakfast.
The Centers for Disease Control has its cruise line sanitation experts here right now. They'll be going on board to interview the passengers, get some specific data on exactly who got sick, how they got sick. They'll be taking some samples. They'll try to analyze it to see what the viral cause might have been for all of this. Could it, in fact, be that Norwalk virus that we've seen on other cruise lines farther to the south?
Now, if it is, in fact, Norwalk, it is spread by contamination in the water supply, perhaps somebody in the kitchen who wasn't washing after going to the bathroom, or, perhaps, some bad oysters. All those would be among the things they look at as people disembark today and we'll be watching as they come off and we'll try to get you the full story. But maybe we shouldn't share with you every last detail -- Kris.
OSBORN: Thank you for that.
Miles O'Brien live in Port Canaveral, Florida on the disappointing homecoming, of course, for the Magic and those who got sick on board.
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 November 23, 2002 - 08:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KRIS OSBORN, CNN ANCHOR: And we are now going to return to the sick bay. A Disney cruise ship is back in Florida this morning with as many as 200 sick people aboard. The Magic, of course, is the latest cruise ship to experience a wave of illness. The Holland America had several outbreaks and is currently undergoing a thorough scrubbing.
CNN's Miles O'Brien is live from Port Canaveral, Florida with more on the Disney ship -- good morning, Miles.
Anything further on when we might hear an official word about what this illness was?
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kris, we're going to hear from Disney officials at about 9:00 Eastern, about 45 minutes from now. We hope they'll shed a little more light on it. Right now they've been pretty tight-lipped about all of this, Disney very careful about its image, as we all well know, and thus not talking much about what went on on board the Magic, which you see behind me.
It docked here at Port Canaveral about 5:30 this morning. We haven't seen any passengers come off. We expect them to come off shortly. We will try to talk to a few of them and at least get a brief picture anecdotally of what went on on board a trip that I'm sure many people would describe as quite miserable.
Approaching 200 people, passengers and crew, got terribly sick starting on Wednesday, as the Magic conducted its usual week long cruise through the Bahamas and on into the Caribbean and Saint Martin. The symptoms are terrible. It's a really bad case of the flu, essentially, is what you would think it to be -- stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. I probably could go on, but I will spare you those details this morning as you're having your breakfast.
The Centers for Disease Control has its cruise line sanitation experts here right now. They'll be going on board to interview the passengers, get some specific data on exactly who got sick, how they got sick. They'll be taking some samples. They'll try to analyze it to see what the viral cause might have been for all of this. Could it, in fact, be that Norwalk virus that we've seen on other cruise lines farther to the south?
Now, if it is, in fact, Norwalk, it is spread by contamination in the water supply, perhaps somebody in the kitchen who wasn't washing after going to the bathroom, or, perhaps, some bad oysters. All those would be among the things they look at as people disembark today and we'll be watching as they come off and we'll try to get you the full story. But maybe we shouldn't share with you every last detail -- Kris.
OSBORN: Thank you for that.
Miles O'Brien live in Port Canaveral, Florida on the disappointing homecoming, of course, for the Magic and those who got sick on board.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
