Tips for Avoiding Illness on Cruise Ships

Millions of Americans embark on cruise ship vacations each year, and it's easy to see why. Cruises offer exotic destinations, fantastic entertainment, and top-notch dining at competitive, all-inclusive prices. As much fun as cruises can be, hardly a year goes by that there aren't media reports of at least one outbreak of gastrointestinal illness aboard an American cruise ship.

With frightening terms like "Norwalk virus" being thrown around, many people are scared and confused about the threat of illness aboard cruise ships. The truth is, Norwalk-type viruses are very common and more than 80% of Norwalk outbreaks actually occur on land. It is unfortunately very common for outbreaks of stomach illness (caused by Norwalk viruses) to occur in places where large numbers of people gather for days at a time, such as hotels, camps, convention centers, etc. Luckily, there are some simple steps you can follow to keep yourself healthy and "stomach virus" free while you're on your next cruise.

In order to protect yourself from illness, we first need to understand why stomach maladies seen to spread so quickly aboard cruise ships. Stomach viruses are typically transmitted via what scientists call a "fecal-oral" route. As gross as it may be to think about, the fact of the matter is that a lot of people don t wash their hands after they go to the bathroom. As I said earlier, the Norwalk virus is very common and it is not uncommon for someone to be infected with the virus and not even know it, since the symptoms are generally not extremely severe and self-limiting. All it takes is for a few infected people to start touching handrails, door knobs, lounge chairs and everything else on board, and before you know it, you have an "outbreak."