XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: lying-old-hag@democrats.org   
      
   Kingston, Jamaica: The Royal Caribbean cruise line on Sunday   
   ended a ship's 10-day trip in the Caribbean early after hundreds   
   of passengers and crew members were sickened with a   
   gastrointestinal illness.   
      
   The Miami-based company made the announcement a few hours after   
   officials from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention   
   boarded the Explorer of the Seas during its US Virgin Islands   
   port call to investigate the illness and evaluate the outbreak   
   response.   
      
   "New reports of illness have decreased day-over-day, and many   
   guests are again up and about. Nevertheless, the disruptions   
   caused by the early wave of illness means that we were unable to   
   deliver the vacation our guests were expecting," Royal Caribbean   
   Cruises said in a statement.   
      
   The decision to end the trip came after consultation between CDC   
   officials and members of the company's medical team, the company   
   said.   
      
   The CDC said early on Monday that 564 of the 3050 passengers   
   aboard the 15-deck ship reported getting sick during the cruise   
   that left Cape Liberty, New Jersey, on Tuesday.   
   Forty-seven crew members also reported feeling ill, according to   
   Bernadette Burden, a spokeswoman for the CDC.   
      
   Tests would have to confirm what caused the outbreak, but fast-   
   spreading norovirus is often to blame for similar symptoms   
   sweeping closed quarters like those on cruise ships.   
      
   Royal Caribbean said special cleaning products and disinfectants   
   proven to kill norovirus were being used to clean ship before it   
   returned to the US.   
      
   It said a full sanitisation program would be carried out after   
   the Explorer of the Seas reached its home port on Wednesday.   
      
   Janet Diaz, a company spokeswoman, said CDC representatives   
   boarded the Explorer of the Seas during the afternoon when it   
   docked in St. Thomas, the main island of the US Virgin Islands.   
      
   During the previous port call in Puerto Rico, the ship underwent   
   "extensive and thorough sanitising" to help prevent more people   
   from getting sick, she said.   
      
   Passengers and crew who fell ill have "responded well to over-   
   the-counter medication being administered onboard the ship,"   
   Diaz said.   
      
   On Friday, an Explorer of the Seas passenger named Arnee Dodd   
   tweeted that she had fallen ill aboard the ship and was   
   quarantined with the other sick people.   
      
   The Connecticut woman wrote that ship employees "put a lock down   
   on food & are constantly cleaning everything."   
      
   Royal Caribbean said it was "taking several steps" to compensate   
   passengers for the shortened trip.   
      
   It also sought to assure customers scheduled for the ship's next   
   voyage that "all possible measures will have been taken to   
   prevent further problems."   
      
   http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/over-600-   
   passengers-hit-by-gastrointestinal-illness-ending-caribbean-   
   cruise-20140128-hva40.html   
      
   Perhaps you should stop hiring third world employees with no   
   concept of sanitation or cleanliness.   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)