More than 600 people have reportedly become ill while on board a Royal Caribbean cruise. Due to the outbreak of the gastrointestinal illness which affected both passengers and crew members, the cruise ship will come back two days earlier than expected.
Spokeswoman for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention Bernadette Burden stated that the 600 people who became ill reported having diarrhea and vomiting. She also stated that 564 of the 3,050 passengers and 47 of 1,165 crew members have reported that they became ill.
The cause of the outbreak is not yet determined although experts agree that the symptoms showed by the patients are consistent with norovirus. Norovirus can affect the gastroenteritis, which makes the affected person suffer from diarrhea and vomiting.
"New reports of illness have decreased day-over-day, and many guests are again up and about. Nevertheless, the disruptions caused by the early wave of illness means that we were unable to deliver the vacation our guests were expecting," the cruise line said in a statement.
The Explorer of the Seas left Cape Liberty, N.J on January 21 and will return to the port on Wednesday. The cruise line stated that they will perform a "thorough barrier'" sanitation of the entire ship to be sure that there will no remaining traces of the virus.
"After consultation between our medical team and representatives of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we think the right thing to do is to bring our guests home early, and use the extra time to sanitize the ship even more thoroughly," the company stated.
Joseph Angelilo was one of the people who were affected by the illness. According to him, he initially thought that he was food poisoined.
"I started with upset stomach and vomiting, and that lasted all night and into the morning," he said on a phone interview with CNN on Sunday.
