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Upper respiratory infection after cruising?


mamaofami
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Just wondering if anyone has returned from a cruise and developed an upper respiratory infection several days later? We returned on 5/3 and my DH began with symptoms that seemed like a cold, led to lots of coughing and a diagnosis from a doctor of an upper respiratory infection. We did fly home, and there was a woman sitting next to him who was coughing, so maybe he caught it that way.

 

Anyone else have this?

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I've gotten bronchitis while on a cruise ship, once.

 

But several times I've gotten upper respiratory infection after a flight, even when no cruise was involved. Imo the recirculated air on planes is full of germs.

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On our recent Prinsendam T-A (May 2 - 17) about 2/3 of the passengers were coughing a lot. I picked it up about the 3rd day aboard, but my DW lasted another week before she got it. I was wondering if it "stayed on board" with the crew after we got off, but kazu/Jacqui has made no mention of it on her current live thread. (I told her about it before she boarded on the 17th, so I think she would have said something if it was still there.)

Edited by jtl513
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My DH came home with a horrid UPI after a ten day cruise on Noordam. It took two courses of antibiotics and about 5 weeks until he felt well again. These sorts of infections spread in places where lots of people gather in confined conditions..... a cruise ship.

 

A now deceased member here on CC (LizB) and her husband were on that cruise. Both of them came down with that infection and he ended up with bad enough pneumonia he was hospitalized for days. He did make a full recovery. Liz's case was far less severe.

 

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Yes, both my wife and I, more so her, returned from our last cruise to Hawaii and So Pacific and are just now getting over a bad infection. We had heard many folks coughing while on this trip and were told that many passengers had upper respiratory issues. As most know usually the issue is the "noro virus" but we heard very little about that but more dealing with chest issues and sinus infections. I guess it's the nature of the beast when travelling with that many people?

Edited by mllewis48
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Yes, it's called Cruise Crud :( Never sure, though, if it's picked up on the plane rather than on the ship. But we were on one cruise a few years ago where just about everyone on our roll call came down with it.

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Since 1989, the only times I have gotten sick was immediately after a vacation involving a cruise. Most of those also involved air travel, but not all. As I sit typing this, I have come down with some bug picked up(apparently) on the cruise that ended last Sunday, I watched a little girl, about 10 years old, sneeze 4 times in the buffet line. The first time she held her empty plate in front of her face (yuck!). The last three times she just launched her sneeze at whatever happened to be in front of her. I remember thinking if I don't come down with something, it will be a minor miracle.

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We have been cruising since the early 1980s... early on we often returned either with a cold or got one afterwards. This stopped happening, when I started turning on the temperature in the cabin to the lowest level of heat when we went to bed, so we no longer slept under the cool air of the air conditioning in the cabin. We rarely get a cold now, once in a while it happens, compared to regularly getting colds before. Try it.

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On our Maasdam cruise l.ast year -- Collectors Cruise -- 25 days -- we had tons of peope constantly caughing.

I was worried that I would come down ill as I had jmust gotten over a bad case of Bronchitis.

Once years ago I did come down with a bad cold on our PanAmerican cruise. Fortunately I had medication with me.

And so far neither of us have gotten sick after a cruise or from flying.

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We managed to avoid any illnesses but did not fly. However, not only were there lots of coughing passengers but our waiter had a bad cold and several of the room stewards had colds. They said it was going around with the crew. But they just had to tough it out with medicine and keep going. They couldn't take sick days just be moved to less passenger contact during the worst part of their illness.

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Happened just once. Started coughing on the bus to the airport after coming off the cruise ship and it took 6 weeks and about 3 rounds of anti biotics to get rid of it...........but that is the only time.

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Far better chance of catching it on the plane than on the ship.

 

I agree - I think! After our latest cruise and flight home, DH came down with a cold, and coughed for two weeks, until the doctor took an x-ray. Then two weeks after that, another x-ray. Haven't had the results of that one yet, but the first one showed a shadow - he said it could be just a broken blood vessel from all the coughing, or pneumonia. Lovely. However, he doesn't seem to be coughing much anymore, so I tell him they were therapeutic x-rays! On the second leg of our cruise, a lot of Australians boarded with coughs, and I have to wonder - was it the flight or the cruise!

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Just wondering if anyone has returned from a cruise and developed an upper respiratory infection several days later? We returned on 5/3 and my DH began with symptoms that seemed like a cold, led to lots of coughing and a diagnosis from a doctor of an upper respiratory infection. We did fly home, and there was a woman sitting next to him who was coughing, so maybe he caught it that way.

 

Anyone else have this?

 

I had this on my last 2 cruises, was coughing so much last year that I passes out several times, very scarry

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Hi

 

So who do you blame if you come down with cold, upper respiratory infection if you hsvr not been on a cruise.

 

I blame pillows in hotels or around the hotel. yeah planes have a lot of sick people.

 

On a cruise you relax you don't do what your normally do at home. So your body relaxes and that germ is ready to jump and make you sick.

 

I know I used to go to a lot of cons, Almost everyone at con got a cold of some kind what we called Con Crud. All it takes for you to come into contact with one sick person. It could be at church, bank, supermarket, store.

 

yes it can be on the ship but its not always the ship

 

Mary

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George, did you have it this time coming off the Maasdam?

 

yes, I was fine until I got home, at least I didn't pass out this year, went for so many test and they could never figure out why. I am ok now cough just stopped

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It could have happened from the ship but also on the plane.

 

Keith

 

 

 

startwin

Yes, it's called Cruise Crud Never sure, though, if it's picked up on the plane rather than on the ship. But we were on one cruise a few years ago where just about everyone on our roll call came down with it.

 

 

 

 

Some cruises we board close to home and don't have to fly.

Thus, if we board healthy and become ill with what a 'boatload' of people seem to be suffering, it's a very good chance the contagious spread of the illness reached our upper respiratory system. :eek:

 

I fully agree airplanes are likely the worst source of spreading this sort of illness in addition to noro like viruses. But sometimes the ship and people in it really are the source.

 

Edited by sail7seas
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there was a lot of this coughing virus going around in the USA this winter after Xmas. People said the actual cough lasted 3 wks. So.....it is still spreading. This is spread in the air while noro is on your hands etc.

 

On our Prinsendam cruise they called it "kennel cough.

 

A few yrs ago after a RC cruise Port Canaveral I ended up with walking pneumonia. I told dr. I had just arrived from a cruise and even before listening to my chest he said "walking pneumonia". I wasn't the first!

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What is "the lowest level of heat"?

 

Most cabins have thermostates that shows settings for heat or cold air moving the gage up or down, heat is usually color red on the gage, cold is green... when I try to shut off the cold air I move the setting to the lowest level on the gage for hot air. Ideally in the middle between the cold and heat... no specific temperature noted on the thermostate.

 

A lot of airconditioning units are in the ceiling right over the bed, so if the airconditioning is running on cool air all night, we are sleeping right under the cool air which I think contributes to colds. At least since we have changed the heat setting before going to bed we rarely get colds anymore.

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Not true. I just returned home from our cruise with a bad head cold. This is the second time out of six HAL cruises. I know for a fact that I picked it up on the ship both times as symptoms were present before flying home. I also noticed that many other passengers (lots of Australians with opposite seasons) had colds.

 

I believe that the Crow's Nest is a likely place for catching a cold. Crowded and poor air circulation.

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

 

Far better chance of catching it on the plane than on the ship.
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