The Centers for Disease Control Prevention Vessel Sanitation Program (CDC-VSP) reported that 118 passengers and crew on a recent voyage of the Viking Cruises, Viking Sea, were sickened with diarrhoea due to a gastrointestinal illness of unknown etiology.
The voyage, which took place November 29–December 13, 2021, resulted in 114 of 640 (17.8%) passengers and 4 of 404 (1.0%) crew members sickened.
In response to the outbreak, Viking Cruises and the crew aboard the ship reported the following actions:
- Increased cleaning and disinfection procedures according to the ship’s outbreak prevention and response plan.
- Collected stool specimens from passenger and/or crew gastrointestinal illness cases and sent specimens for testing.
- Sent daily reports of gastrointestinal illness cases to VSP.
VSP is monitoring the situation and the ship’s outbreak response and sanitation procedures.
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