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Issue Date: August 28, 2005
Fall travel guide
Sickness at sea
Taking a cruise? Guard against germs, without going overboard.
By Kimberly Lisagor
Thousands of cruise ship travelers each year pick up unwanted stowaways: germs. Bacterial and viral diseases can spread quickly at sea, turning a dream vacation into a nightmare.
But experts say cruises are not inherently risky, and staying healthy may come down to basics. "Hand-washing is key," says Dave Forney, chief of the Vessel Sanitation Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "There's no substitute for warm water and soap."
After heavily publicized accounts of onboard viruses in recent years, cruise ships have developed an unfortunate reputation as floating petri dishes. "It's primarily related to the fact you have a very contained environment," says Joe Dalovisio, chairman of infectious disease at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans. When people share confined spaces, they tend to share bugs as well.
But, in fact, by some estimates there are fewer incidences of gastrointestinal viruses on cruise ships than within the general public. We're just more likely to hear about "outbreaks" at sea.
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To protect yourself from illness:
-- Drink bottled water, and be careful about what you eat when you go ashore (anything raw is risky).
-- Make sure vaccinations are up to date.
-- Wash hands thoroughly and regularly.
-- Check out your ship's sanitation record before traveling at www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp. The CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program conducts frequent, unannounced inspections of all cruise ships. Says Ochsner's Joe Dalovisio: "If you're booked on a boat that has flunked its sanitation inspection, you might want to reconsider."
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