More than 100 passengers are sick on a Holland America Line cruise following a norovirus outbreak.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the liner currently has 107 sick guests and 12 sick crew members on its current voyage.
Reported symptoms include vomiting and diarrhoea.
Rotterdam departed Fort Lauderdale in Florida on 2 February on a 12-night Panama Canal Sunfarer cruise with 2,614 guests and 969 crew on board.
The itinerary includes stops in Aruba, Bahamas, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Jamaica.
The outbreak was reported to the CDC on 7 February, with more than five per cent of passengers and crew reporting gastrointestinal symptoms.
According to the health agency, affected passengers and crew have been isolated, stool samples have been collected for testing and increased cleaning and disinfection procedures have been introduced.
A spokesperson for Holland America, which is owned by Carnival Corporation, told USA Today that the “cases were mostly mild and quickly resolved.”
“We initiated enhanced sanitation protocols in conjunction with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to minimise further transmission, including continuous disinfection of the ship.”
The outbreak marks the second such incident on the Rotterdam, which witnessed a similar outbreak in December 2024 when 83 passengers and 12 crew were reported ill.
The incident comes just days after 90 passengers and crew on a Royal Caribbean cruise in the Gulf of Mexico all fell sick with a similar gastrointestinal illness.
Radiance of the Seas departed Tampa, Florida, on 8 February for a seven-day cruise around the western Caribbean, with planned stops in Mexico, Honduras and Belize.
The outbreak was reported to the CDC.
The US-based health agency classified 2024 as the worst year for stomach illness outbreaks on cruise ships in over a decade as norovirus cases surged in the US.
In a single month, 890 cases of stomach illness occurred across five recorded outbreaks.
In December, the CDC released its annual Vessel Sanitation Programme list of the dirtiest ships in the past 12 months.
Ships were given a score out of 100 based on a number of factors from the cleanliness of the pools and hot tubs to the findings of vermin and roaches.
Nine ships failed to score a 90 or above, a figure that included…
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