A luxury cruise ship has been hit hard with norovirus — a highly contagious illness that leads to diarrhea and vomiting — resulting in nearly 400 crew and passengers falling ill, according to the CDC.
Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 was sailing on a nearly two-week cruise from New York to the Caribbean that departed December 21. Early in the journey on December 23, the CDC says the outbreak was reported to its Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP).
You can think of the VSP as the health inspection program for cruise ships. The program inspects ships sailing from the United States for adhering to health codes and posts the results on the CDC website. But it also tracks outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness on cruise ships.
Ships sailing to or from the United States must report regular updates to the CDC. The health organization then normally posts them on its website with 3% or more of passengers or crew on a cruise have symptoms.
In a normal year, the number of outbreaks will vary, but typically hovers around 10-15 incidents. In 2024, there were a total of 16 cruises hit by outbreaks according to the CDC’s list.
But it’s the most recent outbreak abroad the Queen Mary 2 that has registered as the largest of the year based on the number and percentage of those onboard.
In fact, the cruise ship is actually shown twice on the listed outbreaks, showing that the cases didn’t stop when one cruise ended.
Queen Mary 2’s first listing is for a trip from December 14-21. According to CDC data, 138 of 2,430 passengers (5.7%) and 12 of 1,237 crew (1.0%) reported diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal cramps.
The CDC lists the cause as norovirus and says that Cunard “increased cleaning and disinfection procedures” and isolated the sick passengers and crew.
But the cases seem to have only climbed in number on the next cruise.
The next trip sailed from December 21 until January 3. On that cruise, 326 of 2,565 passengers (12.7%) and 65 of 1,233 crew (5.3%) were reported ill with the same symptoms and cause.
Again, the CDC reports that the ship “increased cleaning and disinfection procedures” and isolated sick passengers and crew.
Looking at all the outbreaks shown for 2024, this latest outbreak is by far the largest of the entire year:
As of now, the ship is currently on another transatlantic trip from New York to Southhampton, England. It is hopefully in better health.
