Passengers fall ill on cruise liner

More than one in five passengers aboard the Celebrity Mercury cruise ship that departed Charleston more than a week ago has fallen ill with a stomach disorder, so many people that the ship recruited extra medical professionals from a Caribbean island before heading back toward Charleston.

The gastrointestinal affliction includes vomiting and diarrhea and seems symptomatic of norovirus, a stomach flu most commonly found in confined places, such as cruise ships, hospitals and prisons.

The line sent samples to an independent laboratory to identify the outbreak, according to Cynthia Martinez, a Miami-based spokeswoman for Celebrity's parent brand, Royal Caribbean Cruises.

She said she did not know when the company would receive results.

The Mercury left Union Pier on Feb. 15 for an 11-day trip to the Caribbean.

Martinez said guests first sought help from the onboard medical staff Sunday. Since then 419 of the 1,838 passengers and 27 of the 849 crew members have reported illness.

Martinez said the patients have responded well to over-the-counter medication such as Pepto-Bismol and Immodium. An additional doctor and two nurses joined the ship's medical team Monday in the British Virgin Islands and will return to Charleston with the ship Friday, when another cruise is scheduled to embark.

Meanwhile, employees on the Mercury are conducting "enhanced cleaning" to keep the sickness from spreading further, Martinez said. She said that means intensively sanitizing high-traffic areas and the cabins of sick guests and crew, plus extra cleaning before the next wave of guests.

The Mercury kicked off Charleston's 2010 cruise season, which anticipates a record 67 calls by big pleasure ships.

But the Mercury's waterside portion of its first local voyage this year proved rocky from the start. Seven crew members suffered carbon monoxide poisoning two days before the ship arrived in Charleston. They received medical care in Baltimore.

Martinez said the two incidents are unrelated.

Celebrity contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a federal health agency, following the recent stomach flu outbreak, as required any time a gastrointestinal illness count affects at least 2 percent of a ship's population.

While an official diagnosis of this latest outbreak of at-sea illnesses has not been determined, the Celebrity Mercury experienced two norovirus outbreaks last year, according to CDC data.

Only the common cold proves more prevalent than norovirus which, according to the CDC, totals as many as 23 million U.S. cases each year.

The greater Charleston area suffered a norovirus epidemic in 2003, when schools reported high absentee rates and some pediatricians' offices took in nearly double the normal number of patients.

A 2006 outbreak closed part of the adult psychiatric ward at the Medical University of South Carolina. and three months ago a handful of people in Charleston County contracted norovirus after eating tainted oysters from Texas.

As a preventive measure, Celebrity Mercury staff provides hand sanitizer throughout the ship, including at the dining room entrance. Affected guests on this cruise were quarantined to their rooms until they displayed no symptoms for a day, according to Martinez.

People in isolation will receive an onboard credit for the lost travel days. That credit goes toward charges accrued onboard, and the guest receives any balance as a refund.

Susan Altman, a travel consultant with Abbott & Hill Travel, said her company booked 90 passengers on this first Mercury voyage of 2010. Her office received a few phone calls Tuesday morning, she said, primarily from friends and family of passengers onboard.

The Celebrity Mercury's next embarkation will be Friday, followed by sailings March 8, 19 and 29, and April 9 and 19. The ship also is booked for a series of five sailings from Charleston in 2011.

With about 60 guests booked on the cruise that leaves Friday, Altman said she has processed no cancellations yet. She said she knows these outbreaks are always a risk with cruise ships.

"It's been happening over the years, but it hasn't been for a while, so you keep your fingers crossed it won't happen," Altman said. "It's a hazard of living today."

Altman said another travel consultant in her office sailed out with the Mercury on this trip and that she herself booked a cruise set for three weeks from now.