How to Stay Healthy at Sea

[Jason]

How to Stay Healthy at Sea[/size]

By Kate Appleton, Budget Travel Online

Jaret Ames, acting chief of the vessel sanitation program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), sheds light on norovirus facts -- and fictions -- and ways that cruise passengers can avoid getting sick.

Q:

A:

Q:

A:

Q:

A:

If you're a person who's ill, the key is to stay in your cabin and keep washing your hands throughout the day. When you do have to circulate with other people, wash your hands. Even at home when you're ill, you need to do a very good, 30-second hand wash.

Of course, you can have water or foodstuffs with contaminated fecal matter. Normally those cause quite large cluster outbreaks. We had some highly suspect waterborne outbreaks, but they were back in 2000 or 2001.

Q:

A: One of the primary misconceptions people have is that the only people who need to really do proper and thorough and regular hand-washing is the crew aboard. They think that's where the breakdown is and don't see themselves as people who could transmit illness, but they are.

The second one is that people think that because they wash their hands once a day that will cover it. People don't truly understand the timing of it. Some people turn the water on, pass their hands under it, and quickly turn it off.

People should pay close attention when they use the hand-wash sink faucets; ideally they should shut the faucet off with a paper towel and use a paper towel to open the door when they leave the bathroom.

Habits make you a more risky person -- a person who bites his nails or chews and plays with his gum or smokes. From a transmission perspective, those people are going to be more likely cases.

Q:

A:

Q:

A: It's generally a decision by each company or cruise line as to how many doctors or nurses to provide. Some will have literally what amounts to an EMT as their medical person and they may only have 100 passengers, but that's probably a ship that visits a port of call every day and is sailing through U.S. river systems, so they're never more than 24 hours away from pulling into a port and getting hospital care as needed.

Q:

A:

We look at swimming pools and whirlpool spas. There's also a requirement concerning overall environmental issues like pest management and air ventilation, and one for the child activity center that many ships now have onboard. It takes seven or eight hours for two people to inspect a cruise ship.

Q:

A:

Our 2005 operations manual specifies that every ship should have a written outbreak-prevention and response plan. The plan must establish what triggers the plan into action. Almost all the ships sailing in the U.S. today have an active outbreak-and-response plan that details different ways to control infection.

There have also been some facility changes. Every ship is now required to have a way to allow passengers to exit the public bathrooms without touching the bare door with their hands, whether it's a paper towel and wastebasket near the exit or a mechanical door that opens outwards so that a person can push with the hip to exit.

There's a rule on mandatory isolation of crew and recommended isolation of ill passengers so that they don't transmit the virus.

Q:

A:

Q:

A:

Q:

A:

Q:

A:

Q:

A:

[PrincessOne]

Great post....

Thanks for sharing...

I am one of the people that uses the hand sanitizers frequently while cruising...I also try not to touch the elevator buttons with my hands, lol...I have seen too many times, a person sneeze, cover their mouth and nose, which is good, but then touch the rail, or elevator buttons etc.

People just need to follow simple steps.

D

[Spikesgirl]

On eof the easiest ways to avoid getting sick is the hand washing route, as the article mentioned. It's hard to know how long to wash, but if you sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" three times that's about 30 seconds. You'll be amazed at how long it seems. In Culinary Arts, we actually have to take and pass a seminar on hand washing. You wouldn't think after all these years (since Kindergarden) it would be an issue, but it really is.

Just as an aside, we've been lucky so far - no noro here!

Charlie

[Mebert]

Jason,

Thanks for this very important article. I currently follow the hygiene protocol prescribed by the CDC, except I used to wash my hands for 20 seconds and often. I'll have to change that and increase the wash time by 10 seconds. When I took a food safefy course, that's where I got the 20 seconds from, the instructor told us to count one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand and so forth to get the proper number of seconds. I find that I use that method not only on cruises but in every day life. I also carry a tiny bottle of sanitizer to apply just before any meal. Like PrincessOne, I try not to touch anything. Forgive me, but I wash my hands after a handshake and try not to shake hands during dinner. I pick up my knife and fork or hold on to my knife and fork and give a friendly smile and a hearty nod. If I do shake hands, I don't mention anything to anyone, but just go and wash my hands. Sorry.

Jason, this article is so important, is there a way to get it a permanent place on the board?