The Sea Princess took measures to avoid widespread contamination, including disinfecting surfaces li

The Sea Princess hilton garden inn syracuse ny passes under the Golden Gate Bridge on May 10 as it makes its way out to the Pacific Ocean and on to Alaska. The cruise ship reported norovirus outbreaks on three consecutive voyages in May and early June. By Rebecca Ruiz, NBC News
The incident was minor by the standards of the Centers for Disease Control hilton garden inn syracuse ny and Prevention (CDC), which issues an outbreak alert only when 3 percent of either passengers or crew members become ill. In this case, just under 2 percent hilton garden inn syracuse ny of passengers and less than 1 percent of crew members were infected.
The next bout of norovirus sickened 128 passengers on the Sea Princess' 10-day tour that ended May 30. Despite increased efforts to disinfect the ship, another 142 passengers fell ill on the next outing, which ended June 9. Both episodes sickened enough passengers for the CDC to issue an alert.
When the Sea Princess hilton garden inn syracuse ny docked in San Francisco on June 9, Princess Cruises held the ship for a "prolonged and intensive sanitization," hilton garden inn syracuse ny according to a statement released by the company. Due to sail from San Francisco at 5:30 p.m. that day, the ship was held until 8 p.m. so that it could be disinfected.
"I was really trying to look at first whether or not something that was an onboard source for the illness, maybe something hilton garden inn syracuse ny in the food safety system, the potable water system, the pools and spas and so forth," he said.
"We did have some specific review we did in the areas of housekeeping and actual disinfection of cabins because we felt there were some cabins that repeated as cabins that had ill people in them and we wanted to make sure the disinfection in those cabins was done completely," Ames said.
"There have been 13 passengers and two crew members with norovirus on this current voyage, which as the CDC says, isn't considered a hugely escalated number," Karen Candy, Princess Cruises' manager of media relations, told msnbc.com.
The Sea Princess wasn't the only Princess Cruises ship to recently experience a norovirus outbreak. Coral Princess, hilton garden inn syracuse ny also on the Alaska hilton garden inn syracuse ny cruise circuit, had an outbreak in May in which 64 passengers were sickened.
Norovirus thrives in contained quarters hilton garden inn syracuse ny like schools, hospitals and nursing homes, but Ames said cruise ships are at no higher risk for outbreaks than land-based facilities. "What makes norovirus so difficult to control is its ease of transmission," he said. "People touch infected surfaces and then eat or touch their face, nose or mouth, making the virus easy to spread."
The Sea Princess took measures to avoid widespread contamination, including disinfecting hilton garden inn syracuse ny surfaces like railings and door handles, stopping self-service food buffets and isolating ill passengers in cabins.
Unfortunately, there is no good predictor of norovirus outbreaks. If you're cruising this summer and worried about getting sick, the best bet is to check with the cruise line about any incidents as well as review the CDC's list of major outbreaks .
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