More than 125 Cunard passengers get sick in gastrointestinal illness outbreak

More than 125 Cunard Line passengers got sick in an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 128 of the 1,824 passengers on the line’s Queen Victoria ship reported being ill, along with 25 crew members. Their main symptoms were diarrhea and vomiting.

The health agency listed the causative agent as unknown.

A Cunard spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the ship immediately implemented “enhanced health and safety protocols to ensure the wellbeing of all guests and crew on board.” The line isolated sick passengers and crew and increased cleaning and disinfection measures in response to the outbreak, according to the CDC.

Queen Victoria is currently sailing a 107-night world voyage that departed on Jan. 11 from Southampton, England (the line’s world voyages are also sold in multiple segments). The CDC listed the impacted dates as beginning Jan. 22, when the ship stopped in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The news comes after nearly 100 Celebrity Cruises passengers got sick in a norovirus outbreak earlier this month, the first outbreak of gastrointestinal illness on cruises in 2024 to meet the CDC’s threshold for public notification.

The health agency logged 14 outbreaks in 2023, more than any year between 2017 and 2019. Norovirus was listed as the causative agent in all but one.

While the virus is often associated with cruises, Ben Lopman, a professor of epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, told USA TODAY last year that cruises make up a "tiny minority of norovirus outbreaks.” Most happen in health care settings such as nursing homes.

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Queen Victoria passengers sick in gastrointestinal illness outbreak