An outbreak of gastrointestinal illness in Bordeaux, France, led French authorities to order 1,700 passengers and crew to stay on board as people passed by the British cruise ship Ambition.
French authorities eased restrictions on passengers aboard the British cruise ship Ambition on Wednesday after tests confirmed a gastrointestinal virus, likely norovirus and not hantavirus, was behind the outbreak that sickened dozens of people on the ship.The ship, operated by Ambassador Cruise Line, was earlier placed under a temporary lockdown in the port city of Bordeaux after concerns emerged over a possible link to the deadly hantavirus outbreak on the Dutch-flagged MV Hondius.However, French officials said there was “no reason” to link the two incidents.
What happened on board?
About 80 people on the Ambition have developed symptoms associated with an acute digestive infection since Monday, officials said.At least 48 passengers and one crew member were showing gastrointestinal symptoms as of Wednesday morning, according to news agency AP.The ship was carrying 1,233 passengers, mostly from Britain and Ireland, along with 514 crew members.French officials said testing confirmed the outbreak was a “gastro-intestinal infection of viral origin”. No serious cases were reported and asymptomatic passengers were later allowed to disembark.Passengers who remained ill were asked to isolate in their cabin.The ship departed from the Shetland Islands on 6 May and stopped in Belfast and Liverpool before arriving in Bordeaux. It was scheduled to proceed to Spain before returning to Liverpool on 22 May.
Passenger dies during journey
Concerns initially intensified after a 92-year-old British passenger died on the plane.But health officials later said the man had suffered a heart attack and his death was not linked to a gastrointestinal outbreak.“At this stage, no link with the gastroenteritis episode has been established,” officials said, according to news agency AFP.Officials said the passenger’s body was kept on board the ship in accordance with international maritime traditions.
Passengers describe conditions on board
Officials said the restrictions were imposed “out of an abundance of caution” amid global concern over the separate hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius.Seos Guillaidhe, a passenger from Belfast, told AFP via Facebook that life on the ship was continuing relatively normally despite increased hygiene measures.“We are on the ship with extra hygiene guidelines in place. It’s not as bad as it was during Covid. People are functioning normally,” he said while “playing bingo” on the ship.He later said: “We are allowed to disembark, restrictions have been lifted.”Others described more difficult circumstances. “It’s a challenge for the two of us to live in a cabin with bugs,” one infected passenger wrote on Facebook, according to AFP.
Why were the officials alert?
The recent hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius led to additional investigation into this outbreak, prompting an international health response.The World Health Organization confirmed eight laboratory cases of Andes virus, the only hantavirus strain known to spread between humans on the Honduras. Three passengers linked to that outbreak died.Health officials stressed that there is currently no evidence linking the Ambition outbreak to hantavirus cases.Cruise ships regularly suffer gastrointestinal outbreaks, often linked to norovirus.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 23 such outbreaks on cruise ships last year.Gastroenteritis is commonly known as stomach flu. Its primary symptoms include vomiting and diarrhea. The disease spreads easily but does not usually have serious consequences, although it can sometimes lead to more serious problems such as dehydration.This is very different from hantavirus, which has a high mortality rate but spreads only in rare cases and requires close contact.