Disease and Outbreaks

Golden Princess9News in Australia reports that the Golden Princess cruise ship docked in Melbourne this morning “after hundreds of passengers were struck down with gastro.”

The newspaper reports that “more than 300 passengers” on-board the cruise ship are believed to have been affected with a gastrointestinal illness.

Princess Cruises spokesman praised the ship’s crew and medical

Zika VirusThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added eight (8) more destinations to its recent Zika virus travel alert yesterday.

In addition to the 14 countries already on the CDC list (Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti , Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Paraguay, Suriname, and Venezuela), the CDC added

Tonight I received the following message from a Princess Cruises’ passenger just off the Star Princess:

"I just arrived in Vancouver on the Star Princess. Cruise was September 19 – October 4 2015 Vancouver-Hawaii-Vancouver. I contacted the worst type flu of my life on the 21 September afternoon. By the third day I notified Medical

Cruise Ship NorovirusEarlier this month, we reported that researchers in Canada concluded that norovirus can spread by air, according to a publication in the highly respected Clinical Infectious Diseases. Eight doctors participated in a study of norovirus and determined that norovirus can be transmitted in an airborne form.  

Researchers collected air samples (about 3 feet away from