Cruise workers breaking the rules on norovirus reporting?

My parents just returned from a cruise out of eastern Florida. No reports of barfing.

But Contact 5 Investigators in West Palm Beach are asking, could cruise ship workers be putting you at risk?

NewsChannel 5 searched through hundreds of inspection reports for every cruise ship that comes in and out of U.S. ports and discovered passengers can spread the norovirus, but who’s watching out for the 

vomit-cruise-226x300crew members?

Inspection reports for a cruise over the last year on the Carnival Freedom show a butcher got sick on board back in June and didn’t tell the on board doctor until the next day.  Plus, they claim he continued working while having symptoms.

If you’d like to look up medical reporting problems for any ship, click here.

It was a similar case for a waiter back in January. Reports show the worker was “given a warning. ”

Inspectors with the Centers for Disease Control say workers are required to report an illness right away. Plus, food workers are supposed to be isolated for at least two days, but that’s not always happening.

The Contact 5 Investigators checked on about 170 ships that come in and out of U.S. ports. Fifty nine of those ships had workers that didn’t report the illness properly, according to inspection reports. There was a total of 130 workers from waiters, to bartenders, to workers who wash the dishes.

Inspection reports for the Allure of the Seas show a café attendant worked the day she was sick and “broke medical isolation” to go to the laundry room and to the ship’s café.

On the Freedom of the Seas, a worker who cleans the ship had diarrhea and stomach cramps but didn’t report it until 12 hours later and continued cleaning.

The Centers for Disease Control is in charge of inspecting cruise ships at least once a year while they’re docked at a port.

“If you have a food worker who’s ill who’s working with food, that’ a common, really a classic way to transmit illness,” said Captain Jaret Ames, Chief of CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program

“It’s absolutely wrong and it’s absolutely a famous way to make people sick,” said Captain Ames.

This entry was posted in E. coli, Norovirus and tagged , , , by Douglas Powell. Bookmark the permalink.

About Douglas Powell

A former professor of food safety and the publisher of barfblog.com, Powell is passionate about food, has five daughters, and is an OK goaltender in pickup hockey. Download Doug’s CV here. Dr. Douglas Powell editor, barfblog.com retired professor, food safety 3/289 Annerley Rd Annerley, Queensland 4103 dpowell29@gmail.com 61478222221 I am based in Brisbane, Australia, 15 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time