Airborne Disease On Cruise Ships

According to a Purdue University air quality expert cruise ship air conditioning systems are not designed to filter out particles as small as the coronavirus.

Airborne disease on cruise ships. These findings underscore the importance of implementing public health measures that target the control of inhalation of aerosols in addition to ongoing. As of February 29 2020 more than 700 passengers had been infected and six killed by this infectious disease which is closely related to the SARS virus. An infectious agent introduced into the environment of a cruise ship has the potential to be distributed widely across the ship and to cause significant morbidity.

But the CDC has never even addressed the fact that norovirus clearly can be transmitted in this manner. In fairness to Princess Cruises it is nor perfectly clear whether coranavirus like norovirus can be transmitted in an airborne manner. So outbreaks are found and reported more quickly on a cruise ship than on land.

A case control study identified the ships whirlpool spa and filter as. The main route for transmission was considered to be from person-to-person but other routes should not be neglected such as aerosol transmission via central air supply or drainage systems 50. This study integrated an individual-to-individual probability model a susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered SEIR epidemic model at the individual scale and an onboard indoor social contact network model for evaluating the infection risk on a typical cruise ship voyage.

That fact had already been reported in scientific papers urgently proclaimed by Chinas minister of Health in January of 2020 apparent from multiple epidemiological reports already in the record. Close contact transmission was likely happening on that cruise ship but the disease had spread far more quickly than non-airborne diseases typically spread. The study found the risk associated with transmission of airborne particles between spaces through the HVAC system is exceptionally low and undetectable.

One of the biggest outbreaks occurred on board the British-registered Diamond Princess cruise ship. This is also why norovirus can quickly spread throughout a ship if one person falls ill. For more information about noroviruses on cruise ships call the CDC public response hotline at 1-800-CDC-INFO 1-800-232-4636.

The CDC has not ever stated that coronavirus can be transmitted through the air. We find that airborne transmission likely accounted for 50 of disease transmission on the Diamond Princess cruise ship which includes inhalation of aerosols during close contact as well as longer range. Vectorborne Diseases Cruise ship port visits may include countries where vectorborne diseases such as malaria dengue yellow fever Japanese encephalitis and Zika are endemic.