First of all, visit the CDC's website and read up on the Norwalk virus. It can spread in any enclosed space...like an office building, school, nursing home, and, yes, a cruise ship. According to the CDC, about 23 million Americans contract this "stomach flu" on an annual basis. Yet only 1 person in 3,600 people contract this virus on a cruise ship. If you do become sick, you are more apt to have picked up the disease during your everyday life.
So why do we always hear about Norwalk in relation to cruise travel? Because cruise lines must, by law, report any instance of an illness that could be Norwalk. Your office building may have had an outbreak but was not obligated to share that information with you or the health department.
While Norwalk is a nasty bug, it's fairly easy to prevent and contain:
- Wash your hands frequently
- Wash all fruits and vegetables vigorously before consuming
- Don't eat raw oysters
- If someone is sick, disinfect the area with a beach-based cleaner
All this being said, I do understand that Norwalk can be picked up while on a cruise and it's of course horrible to get sick on any vacation. But, I'm miffed that CNN's Rick Sanchez would single out the cruise lines as a potential breeding ground for this illness (when statistically you're actually less apt to get the virus while at sea) and I think it's downright irresponsible for him to guess about the possibility of swine flu spreading throughout a ship.
Let's all take the necessary precautions with any infectious disease, but let's not start a panic when we're not even sure what we're dealing with yet.
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