The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reporting that there is a gastrointestinal outbreak on the Silver Shadow operated by the Silversea Cruises company.
The CDC reports that 28 of 327 (8.56%) of the passengers suffered from vomiting and diarrhea and other GI symptoms and reported being ill during the cruise, which took place between May 10th and today (May 24, 2018). 8 of 290 crew members reported ill with such GI symptoms during the cruise.
The CDC has not been able to determine the causative agent (norovirus, E. coli, etc.) for the outbreak.
This is the fifth GI outbreak this year on a cruise ship meeting the threshold requirements of the CDC. The CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) is required to post a report when 3% or more of passengers or crew report symptoms of gastrointestinal illness to the ship’s medical staff. The medical staff of a cruise ship must send the reports to the CDC within 15 days of arriving at a U.S. port.
The Silver Shadow failed a CDC inspection back in 2013 in a heavily publicized case when crew members were ordered to hide food and galley equipment in the cruise ship’s crew quarters. The Silver Shadow failed another CDC inspection in 2015. The Silver Shadow passed four CDC inspections since 2015 (with scores ranging from 95 to as high as 100) and there is no indication of a correlation between the past failed CDC inspections and the current GI outbreak on this cruise ship. (The Silver Wind, on the other hand, recently failed a CDC inspection, in May of this year, with a score of only 79).
The Silver Shadow is currently at the end of a two week cruise which started in Tokyo, Japan on May 10th. The ship has called on a number of other ports in Japan (Aomori, Hakodate, and Kushiro) and Petropavlovsk, Russia before arriving at various ports in Alaska, including Seward where it stopped this morning.
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Photo credit: Bahnfrend – CC BY-SA 4.0, commons / wikimedia.
May 25, 2018 Update: Here is a statement from Silversea Cruises:
Monaco; May 25, 2018
GI cases on Silver Shadow
“Following a number of passengers and crew reporting gastrointestinal symptoms to the medical staff on board the Silver Shadow the vessel registered these cases with the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in line with standard procedures.
Over the period May10-24, 28 out of 327 passengers and 8 out of 290 crew members reported GI symptoms to the ship’s Doctor during the cruise from Japan to Alaska with a call at the Russian Port of Petropavlosk.
The ship’s Doctor kept in regular contact with the CDC Officer during the passage to Seward Cruise Port, Alaska, where the Silversea Head of Fleet Operations, together with a CDC Officer joined the vessel to review all sanitation procedures and confirmed that the ship’s Management were following all the correct procedures. No further cases of GI of symptoms have been reported and the vessel has been cleared to continue cruising. All passengers are currently recovering.”
May 28, 2018 Update: Here is another statement from Silversea:
Monaco; 28th May 2018
“In its latest US Public Health/ CDC Inspection in Juneau on May 26, cruise ship “Silver Shadow” scored 93 out of a possible 100 points. This outcome, reflecting the company’s high standards, is the result of the work done by the ship’s management and staff in dealing with an occurrence of gastrointestinal symptoms reported to the USPH/CDC in line with standard procedures prior to the ship’s arrival in Seward, Alaska following a cruise from Japan.
Over the period May 10-24, 28 out of 327 passengers and 8 out of 290 crew members reported GI symptoms to the ship’s medical staff.
The ship’s Doctor kept in regular contact with the CDC Officer during the passage to Seward Cruise Port, Alaska, where the Silversea Head of Fleet Operations, together with a CDC Officer joined the vessel to review all sanitation procedures and confirmed that the ship’s Management were following all the correct procedures. No further cases of GI of symptoms have been reported and all passengers have recovered”