Three Holland America Line Cruise Ships in Code Red

Holland America Line cruise ships Volendam, Noordam, and Nieuw Amsterdam have reported to CDC number of passengers and crew being ill during July voyages.

Norovirus outbreak has been implicated in a gastrointestinal illness on board the Holland America Line cruise ship ms Volendam, twice. After 7-day Alaska cruise, the vessel arrived in Vancouver, Canada, with 68 of 1,480 (4.59%) passengers and 1 of 610 (0.16%) crew sickened presenting the symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting. The following cruise ms Volendam reported 46 of 1,473 (3.12%) passengers and 10 of 620 (1.61%) crew sickened. VSP epidemiologist and environmental health officers had boarded the vessel on arrival in Juneau on July 28, 2017, and conducted an environmental assessment.

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Ms Noordam reported 167 of 2,086 (8.02%) passengers and 6 of 802 (0.75%) crew with predominant symptoms of vomiting diarrhea during the7-Nights Alaska voyage from July 23, to July 30.

Nieuw Amsterdam has reported code red on July 22 to July 29 voyage, however, there are no reports of how many passengers and crew were reported ill.

All three cruise ships depart from Vancouver, Canada. According to CDC reports this is the first time since 1994 three cruise ships from same cruise line to report code red in one month.

“We sailed on the MS Noordam, from Seward, AK, to Vancouver, BC, July 23-30. They knew pretty early on that they had a Noro virus, I'm thinking by day 2 or so.

Ship employees changed the drink stations from self-serve to manned stations. People working there wore plastic gloves. On the buffet lines, they handed out the food ... nothing was self-serve. They had hand sanitizer at the front of the dining rooms and a person stationed there asking people to use hand sanitizer. The captain urged everyone to wash hands often and use hand sanitizer, etc. He also urged all the people that were sick to stay in their rooms.

My husband and I and one of my daughters all got violently ill an hour or two after eating dinner on Wednesday night. It was pretty bad ... vomiting, diarrhea, then later fever, chills, low pack pain, headache. And for me, it set off a migraine that lasted me the rest of the trip. Not a lot of fun. And more severe than one would believe from the captain's description of a 12-24 hour bug.” Says one passenger.