Federal health officers boarded a Princess Cruises oceanliner Sunday at San Pedro to investigate a Norovirus outbreak that hit a small percentage of the people on a month-long cruise to the Pacific isles.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 158 passengers of the 3,009 on board the Crown Princess cruise ship and 14 of the 1,160 crew members suffered from vomiting and diarrhea, which began in the last half of the voyage.
The Crown Princess was being scrubbed to make it ready for a Sunday night embarkation, Carnival officials said. It was the same ship involved in large Norovirus outbreaks last April.
The Norovirus is very contagious and can be transmitted from an infected person, contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces, according to the CDC.
A CDC environmental health officer was expected to conduct an environmental health assessment and evaluate the outbreak and response activities. Specimens are to be sent to the CDC lab for confirmatory testing and genome sequencing.
Princess Cruises said its crew increased cleaning and disinfection procedures, made announcements to notify onboard passengers of the outbreak, encouraged case reporting and advocated hand hygiene.
Medical workers onboard also collected stool specimens from ill passengers and crew, and tested them with onboard rapid norovirus test.
According to the Princess Cruise Media Relations Department, the 28-day cruise had begun in Los Angeles, and traveled to Hawaii and Tahiti, among other ports.