Norovirus Outbreaks Surge on Cruise Ships—Here's How the CDC Says Passengers Should Protect Themselves
Thus far in 2025, the CDC has issued notifications on 16 separate cruise outbreaks, outpacing the yearly totals from 2024 and 2023. That's not to say travelers should not go on cruises, but they should stay aware of the best practices. Here's what the CDC advises.Cruise ship passengers should be aware of a heightened risk of illness on their vessels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
There have been 16 separate outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness on board cruise ships that met the CDC's criteria for public notification thus far in 2025. Of the 13 outbreak, 10 were norovirus. Some 150 passengers crew members fell ill with norovirus during the most recent reported outbreak aboard Holland America Line's Eurodam.
'In the 2024-2025 season, a new strain of norovirus (GII.17) became predominant,' a CDC spokesperson told Travel + Leisure. 'In years when there is a new strain of the virus, there can be increased norovirus illness.'
Compared to previous years, that number is already high: 2024 saw 18 outbreaks total, while 2023 saw 14.
'Each year, there are about 2,500 reported norovirus outbreaks in the United States," the CDC spokesperson said. 'Norovirus outbreaks occur throughout the year but are most common from November to April. Most outbreaks occur when infected people spread the virus to others through direct contact (such as caring for them, sharing food, or eating utensils with them).'
Cruise ships are particularly susceptible to norovirus, due to the closed quarters that brings together many people in a new environment that can create person-to-person risks for illness to spread.
'Norovirus outbreaks can happen anywhere and can spread quickly, particularly in enclosed or crowded environments such as cruise ships. Norovirus can also persist on surfaces for extended periods and can be transmitted via food, water or viral droplets on surfaces, but the most common mode of transmission is through direct contact with infected individuals,' the CDC spokesperson told T+L.
To prevent the spread of norovirus or other gastrointestinal illnesses (referred to as AGE, or acute gastroenteritis) on cruise ships, the CDC recommends quickly reporting any illness. 'Reporting gastrointestinal illness is important. When passengers and crew tell the medical center onboard about their symptoms, it helps GI illness outbreaks get detected quickly. This allows steps to be taken to limit the spread of illness,' the CDC website states.
The CDC also advises washing your hands often (particularly before eating and after using the bathroom), and avoiding people with symptoms. "Infection control measures, such as thorough hand washing, cleaning and disinfecting surfaces with bleach, and patient isolation are the best ways to prevent norovirus and keep it from spreading to others,' the CDC spokesperson noted.
Outbreaks are tracked by the CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP). Recently, the the VSP was impacted by government staffing cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services, but tracking illnesses on board cruise ships continues.
Related | CDC Cuts Impacted Cruise Ship Health Inspectors—Here's What It Means for Travelers | Learn More
Read the original article on Travel & Leisure
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Medscape
21 minutes ago
- Medscape
US CDC Restores Jobs for 450 Laid-off Employees
(Reuters) -The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reinstating some 450 employees laid off under the Trump administration's massive reduction of the federal workforce, a government spokesperson said on Wednesday. The employees had worked for the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention, the National Center for Environmental Health, the Immediate Office of the Director and the Global Health Center (GHC), according to Fox News. A spokesperson for the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department, which oversees the CDC, confirmed the report. Their work includes oversight of lead poisoning prevention, toxic chemical spills, air quality as well as global disease surveillance, according to the CDC's website. Many of the employees were part of the mass layoffs of 10,000 staffers at U.S. health agencies announced in April by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk to shrink the federal government and slash spending. Some 2,400 CDC jobs were slated for cuts under the plan. Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr later said that some of those roles would be reinstated after an outcry over the potential for increased risks to public health. In an email from Thomas Nagy of HHS seen by Reuters, employees were told that their reduction in force or RIF notices had been revoked and that they should contact their immediate supervisor with questions. Some of the reinstated employees were from the CDC's Lead Poisoning Prevention and Surveillance Branch, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. That program had been scheduled to be included in a new HHS division called the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA. (Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; editing by Michele Gershberg and Diane Craft)
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
From heartbreak to hope; suicide loss survivor says 'You are not alone'
FARMERSBURG, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — According to the CDC in 2023, suicide was the second leading cause of death among those ages 10 to 34. Losing a loved one to suicide is a pain that's nearly impossible to put into words. But in Sullivan County, one couple is doing just that—finding the words, sharing their story, and helping others find hope again. It's a mission born out of heartbreak and now, healing. On the county road next to Westlawn Cemetery in Farmersburg, Mike Frey spins the tires against the pavement in the truck he and his son, Cade, once restored together. They call them 'Burnouts for Cade.' A cloud of smoke. A roar of horsepower. A father's way of saying, I love you, I miss you. 'It has helped us grieve'; loved ones share the silver lining of organ donation after loss 'Cade was my son,' Mike said. 'He passed away from suicide, November 24, 2020. He had just graduated from high school at Sullivan. An amazing young man, he was a race car driver at the quarter midget track in Terre Haute, he loved motocross, he loved making people laugh and smile more.' Mike went on to describe his last interactions with his son and talked about the plans he had for the year. 'We did not see this coming,' he said as a silence fell over him. 'No one saw this coming.' Cade Frey took his life the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. 'I remember that day when I found him,' Mike said. 'There was nothing else we could've done for Cade,' Mike said as he was overcome with emotion. 'There was just nothing they could do.' Cade's organs were donated, and he saved five lives. But his absence left a void that Mike and his companion Rebecca are still learning to live with. 'I go by every single morning, by the graveside, and tell my son good morning, and try to go by every single evening and tell him goodnight,' Mike said. Their journey led them to Team of Mercy, a nonprofit based in Terre Haute that helps those left behind after losing a loved one to suicide. Snow angels made to honor life of Sullivan High School student 'We went to our first meeting in Terre Haute and have been going ever since for the last five years, every month,' he said. The couple now leads Team of Mercy's monthly survivor support group in Sullivan. 'It's just a place we can connect with others in Sullivan who are going through the same thing we are,' Mike said. 'Being around people who have experienced what you've gone through and what you've lost is very, very important because then you realize that you aren't alone, that you are sharing this with other people,' Rebecca said. 'I honestly feel if we didn't have Team of Mercy helping us through all of this, I'm not so sure we would get out of bed some days,' she added. Christina Crist knows that pain all too well. She lost her daughter Hannah to suicide in 2013 and became one of the driving forces behind Team of Mercy. 'Hannah, at the time of her death, was 15 years old, a sophomore at South High School. It had rocked our community's world to know that a 15-year-old, let alone thought about suicide, but actually took her life,' Christna said. Christina described Hannah as tears filled her eyes, 'A fun-loving kid. Charismatic, loving, caring,' she said. 'Kids described her as someone who, if they would be having a bad day and Hannah would notice that and do whatever she could to make sure they were going to have a better day.' A decade later, Christina's grief hasn't faded — but it has evolved. And through her pain, she's found a purpose. 'You will never ever, ever get over this,' Christina said. 'You're not supposed to. But what we learn to do is live in it. We learn to thrive in it, we learn to go on, we figure out how to still hold a piece of our loved ones.' For Christina, it's white butterflies. She spotted one when she sat down for this interview. She said the butterflies may have always been there, but it was after her daughter's death that she started noticing them. 'For almost 13 years, my other daughter and I, whenever we see a white butterfly, we say 'Hi Hannah.' Do I really think that's Hannah in that butterfly?' she questioned. 'No. No. But we find ways to bring joy in such absolute gut-wrenching pain. And if it's a white butterfly, 'Hi Hannah, hi.' And with every story shared—every burnout, every butterfly, every meeting—these survivors are making sure that their loved ones' stories never fade. 'I've lost my son, I can't feel any worse than I do,' Mike says as he chokes up. He takes a moment and then continues. 'There is nothing you could do to me to make me feel any worse after losing him. But if I could help one family from feeling that way, another family, that's all I want,' he added. As the white smoke from the burnout rises across the cemetery and over Cade's gravestone, so does Mike's message, 'You are not alone.' If you've lost a loved one to suicide, Team of Mercy wants you to know that you don't have to walk that journey alone. Mike and Rebecca host the Suicide Loss Support Group in Sullivan on the third Monday of each month from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Abundant Grace Church. It's located at 671 W Wolfe St., behind Walmart in Sullivan. The next meeting is happening on Monday, June 16. For more information on Team of Mercy, click here. If you are experiencing mental health-related distress or are worried about a loved one who may need crisis support, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by clicking here. You can also text or call the hotline by dialing 988. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Atlantic
an hour ago
- Atlantic
The True Beginning of America's Anti-Vaccine Era
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accepted his new position as health secretary, he made a big show of distancing himself from his past life. 'News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry,' Kennedy, who has for decades promoted the debunked notion that vaccines cause autism and has baselessly sown doubt over the ability of the U.S. government to vet shots, said at his confirmation hearing in January. 'I am neither. I am pro-safety.' But for all Kennedy's talk, this week he did exactly what a person would do if they were trying to undermine the scientific consensus on vaccination in the United States. He abruptly dismissed the entire expert committee that advises the CDC on its nationwide vaccine recommendations—and began to fill the roster with like-minded people ready to cast doubt on the benefits of vaccination. Like Kennedy, few of these new appointees to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice, or ACIP, have openly embraced the notion that they are anti-vaccine. But among them are individuals who have spoken out against COVID vaccines and policies, claimed vaccine injuries for their own children, and falsely linked COVID shots to deaths—or even baselessly accused those vaccines of ' causing a form of acquired immunity deficiency syndrome.' In January, I wrote that remaking the committee in exactly this way would be an especially harmful blow to Americans' health: Perhaps more than any other body of experts in the U.S., ACIP guides the nation's future preparedness against infectious disease. By appointing a committee that is poised to legitimize more of his own radical views, Kennedy is giving his skewed version of scientific reality the government's imprimatur. Whether he will admit to it or not, he is serving the most core goal of the anti-vaccine movement—eroding access to, and trust in, immunization. In an emailed statement, Health and Human Services Press Secretary Emily G. Hilliard reiterated that 'Secretary Kennedy is not anti-vaccine—he is pro-safety, pro-transparency, and pro-accountability,' and added that his 'evidence-based approach puts accountability and radical transparency first, which will restore trust in our public health system.' (Kennedy, notably, promised Senator Bill Cassidy during his confirmation process that he would maintain ACIP, as Cassidy put it, 'without changes.') Since the 1960s, ACIP has lent government policy on vaccines the clout of scientific evidence. Its mandate is to convene experts across fields such as infectious disease, immunology, pediatrics, vaccinology, and public health to carefully vet the data on immunizations, weigh their risks and benefits, and vote on recommendations that guide the public on how to use them—who should get vaccines, and when. Those guidelines are then passed to the CDC director, who—with only the rarest of exceptions—accepts that advice wholesale. 'These recommendations are what states look to, what providers look to,' Rupali Limaye, an expert in vaccine behavior at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told me. Medicare, for instance, is required to fully cover the vaccines that ACIP recommends; ACIP also determines which vaccines are covered by the Vaccines for Children Program, which provides free vaccines for children whose families cannot afford them. The experts who serve on ACIP have the opportunity, more than just about any of their scientific peers, to translate their vaccine rhetoric into reality. So far, Kennedy has dismissed the 17 people who were serving on ACIP, and filled eight of the newly open slots. Most of the new nominees have an obvious bone to pick with at least some vaccines, especially COVID shots, and have publicly advocated for limiting their use. Among the new members, for instance, is Robert Malone, a controversial physician who has spoken at anti-vaccine events, where he has denounced COVID vaccines and, without evidence, suggested that they can worsen coronavirus infections. Another appointee is Vicky Pebsworth, who serves on the board of the National Vaccine Information Center, an anti-vaccine nonprofit previously known as Dissatisfied Parents Together. A third, Retsef Levi, a health-care-management expert, called for the administration of COVID vaccines to be halted in 2023, and has questioned the shots' safety, despite a large body of evidence from clinical trials supporting their continued use. Overall, 'this is not a list that would increase confidence in vaccine decisions,' Dorit Reiss, a vaccine-policy expert at UC San Francisco, told me. (None of these new ACIP members returned a request for comment.) The next ACIP meeting is scheduled for the end of this month—and the agenda includes discussion about anthrax vaccines, chikungunya vaccines, COVID-19 vaccines, cytomegalovirus vaccine, human-papillomavirus vaccine, influenza vaccines, Lyme-disease vaccine, meningococcal vaccines, pneumococcal vaccines, and RSV vaccines. That's a big slate of topics for a brand-new panel of members, Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine expert who has previously served on ACIP, told me: Depending on how the meeting is structured, and on the input from CDC scientists, these new committee members could substantially alter the guidelines on several immunizations—perhaps so much so that certain shots could stop being recommended to certain groups of Americans. Based on the composition of the committee so far, Offit predicts that eventually the new ACIP will push the CDC away from full-throated endorsement of many of these vaccines. Even subtle changes in the wording of CDC recommendations—a should swapped for a may —can have big ripple effects, Limaye told me. Insurers, for instance, may be more reluctant to cover vaccines that are not actively endorsed by the CDC; some states—especially those in which vaccines have become a political battleground—may stop mandating those types of shots. If the CDC softens its recommendations, 'we will likely see more partisan divides' in who opts for protection nationwide, Jason Schwartz, a vaccine-policy expert at Yale, told me. Pharmaceutical companies may, in turn, cut down production of vaccines that don't have full CDC backing—perpetuating a cycle of reduced availability and reduced enthusiasm. And primary-care physicians, who look to the CDC's vaccination schedule as an essential reference, may shift the language they use to describe childhood shots, nudging more parents to simply opt out. Historically, medical and public-health associations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, have aligned their vaccine recommendations with ACIP's—because those recommendations were all driven by scientific evidence. Now, though, scientific consensus and government position are beginning to diverge: Multiple groups of physicians, scientists, and public-health scholars have issued statements condemning the vaccine decisions of Kennedy and his allies; a number of prominent scientists have now banded together to form a kind of alt-ACIP, dubbing themselves the Vaccine Integrity Project. As the views of fringe vaccine groups become the government's stance, Americans may soon have to choose between following the science or following what their nation's leaders say. Identifying as 'anti-vaccine' has historically been taboo: In a nation where most people remain largely in favor of shots, the term is pejorative, an open acknowledgement that one's views lie outside of the norm. But the more vaccine resistance infiltrates HHS and its advisers, the more what's considered normal may shift towards Kennedy's own views on vaccines; ACIP's reputation for evidence-backed thinking could even gild those views with scientific legitimacy. Assembling one's own team of friendly experts is an especially effective way to sanewash extremism, Reiss told me, and to overturn the system through what appear to be normal channels. If the nation's most prominent group of vaccine advisers bends toward anti-vaccine, the term loses its extremist edge—and the scientists who argue, based on sound data, that vaccines are safe and effective risk being labeled anti-government.
