Investigation Update on the Coral Princess

Cruise Line: Princess Cruises

Cruise Ship: Coral Princess

Voyage Dates: 05/04 - 05/19

Number of passengers who have reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of passengers onboard: 64 of 1,990 (3.22%)

Number of ill crew who have reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of crew onboard: 3 of 873 (0.57%)

Predominant symptoms: diarrhea

Causative agent: Norovirus

Actions: In response to the outbreak, Princess Cruises and the crew aboard the ship have taken the following actions:

• Increased cleaning and disinfection procedures according to their outbreak prevention and response plan
• Made announcements to both notify passengers and encourage case reporting
• Conducted food and activity questionnaire’s with interview on a number of the ill and well passengers
• Two Princess public health officers boarded the ship to conduct an investigation and collect food samples
• Collected stool specimens from ill passengers and crew for submission to the CDC lab (onboard Norovirus analysis was negative)
• Made daily reports of gastrointestinal illness cases to the VSP

Two CDC Vessel Sanitation Program public health inspectors and one epidemiologist will board the ship on arrival in San Francisco to investigate the source of the outbreak and collect food samples for analysis.