Horizon 2/21 Respiratory Outbreak

[DanL]

The first 7 days were great but my wife fell ill on the 7th day afternoon and I on the next day. Fortunately we brought antibiotics but were relegated to bed for 2.5 to 3 days each. 5 of 8 at our dining table were afflicted. You could tell it was widespread from the symphony of coughing even on departure day in the Palladium showroom. Either the air handling was in need of maintenance or because of it being an older ship it didn't havethe capability of keeping up the air quality. We are both still coughing 3 days off the ship. Hope they get it cleaned up. No intestinal problems.

 

We were on Horizon last May to Bermuda & it was great.

 

We have been on 11 cruises and never sick.

[justfor411]

Sorry to hear you had a rough ending to your cruse.

 

There's been a rather nasty respiratory "bug" running around for the last few weeks, at least on the east coast of the US. Locally, some public places can sound like a TB ward. My nephew in Baltimore has been fighting with it for over a week, and got so bad he ended up at the ER on a nebulizer for a while. A local woman here was hit hard enough that she couldn't work for several days, and still is sounding raspy a week or so later. I've had some mild symptoms myself, but fortunately nowhere near as bad as others. Symptoms I've seen include coughing, respiratory congestion, and that general malaise/weakness you seem to get when you're coughing all the time, and trying to breath through the muck.

 

Unfortunately, if it's viral, antibiotics won't do a thing. If you are in a relatively close environment with a lot of people you are very likely to be exposed, particularly when those folk have come from all around, and now are passing along whatever they've been exposed to at home, on the planes, buses, etc. Add in the fact the average age of Celebrity guests is older than the general population, and you've got the likelihood that more of the group has some sort of respiratory compromise even before they came onboard, and thus may be more susceptible and/or affected to a greater degree.

 

I strongly doubt this is a "air quality" issue. Once someone suffering from a contagious illness comes in close proximity with many other folks, there's soon going to be more sick people, no matter what sort of air handling systems are being used.

 

Hope you feel better soon, and hope your memories of most of your cruise are good ones.

[cruiseyguy]

I agree that this is not an air quality issue. This "bug" is everywhere right now, at least on the East Coast.

[Leela]

It's everywhere on the West Coast, too. Everyone I know has been coughing to some degree or another since early February--some started in mid-January. To make matters worse, a new strain of flu has emerged out here. They're calling it the Santa Clara strain because that's where the Centers for Disease Control is seeing it first. It's a variant of the classic Fujian strain. I heard on the radio that the CDC has already decided to put it into next year's influenza shot cocktail.

 

On top of that, spring has arrived to much of the West Coast so people's allergies are now kicking in on top of all the cold and flu stuff going around.

[Karynanne]

Coughs, colds, flu aren't just on cruises...take the average classroom (30 kids). On any given day about 3-4 are sick with something. 10% is not unusual. But when you hear of those numbers on a cruise, ears perk up, alarm rises and everyone's in a tizzy over it...It's winter, and it's going to happen. Reasons why? Too many to list... I cruise because it's still the greatest way to visit places I love, without having the pain of packing and re-packing everytime it's time to go to a new city.

[DanL]

Well some crew had it and I spoke to one of the performers Beni Mason and he had it. It spread like wildfire and seemed mostly on decks 5 & 6.

 

Now it may have been coincidence but a member of our party saw a man in a decontamination suit on deck 6 during the outbreak.

 

Horizon is 15 yo.

Do the newer ships have better filtration systems?

[Leela]

I'm not a HVAC engineer, but I had no idea that something that could heat and cool something the size of a cruise ship could filter cold and flu viruses out of the air. Can they? I always thought it was for larger particulate matter, like smoke, cooking smells, human skin cells, mites, etc.

[gracecarmo]

We just got off the Summit. Coughs and colds were everywhere. People on both sides of us were sick, and the last day (disembarkation day) my DH came down with it. Now I have it. Severe cough and congestion. It is also going around here, (Kansas) so I don't think the cruise ships are an isolated incident. It can happen anywhere, and the virus is airbourne. Airplanes, ships, schools, etc. etc. have it.

I don't think anyone in a crowded situation can escape.

 

Grace

[justfor411]

If members of the crew experienced similar symptoms, it is just as likely that they contracted the illness through contact with passengers. Actually, given that about 1500 or so passengers came on the ship for the cruise, while the ship's crew probably remained more-or-less static, the overwhelming odds are any virus or bacteria came on with one or more passengers.

 

No mainstream, large-scale HVAC system can protect against the transmission of viruses / bacteria or other infectious agents from person to person. If they could, every hospital in the world would be clamoring to have such a system installed. In short, you breath air out is laden with moisture and other fun stuff, and the person next to you breathes in air that may or may not have in it the stuff you just breathed out. Unless the ship is going to issue spacesuits to every passenger, there's no way to prevent this sort of transmission. While commercial HVAC systems may have filters for dust and larger particles, and may also attempt to "disinfect" the air by various means, it largely is ineffective.

 

"decontamination suit" -- ok, so now we have the marine version of an urban legend, I guess. Any cleaning done in the midst of a reported cases of a potentially infectious nature onboard would involve attendants wiping down surfaces, spraying disinfectants from squirt bottles, etc., at the most wearing gloves. We're talking about a common respiratory illness here, not Ebola. My guess would be any cruise ship doesn't carry any sort of biological isolation suits, as these units are very specialized, very unwieldy, maintenance intensive, require specialized training and simply not called for in any setting outside of a lab or a specially trained emergency response unit.

 

Interesting too, that in your first post, the "evidence" that this problem was "widespread" was coughing in a departure area, but now you seem to know it "spread like wildfire and seemed mostly on decks 5 & 6." Departure areas are grouped by when your transportation from the port is expected to leave, not by deck or floor. Ie, if you have a early flight booked, you'll meet in one area and leave the ship first, if you have a car in the port's lot, you'll meet in another are and be amongst the last to leave.

 

As almost everyone on this thread has pointed out to you, this problem is across many areas in the US at this time. It isn't Celebrity's problem that the folks coming onto their vessels may be carrying a "bug" just like folks who are going into movie theaters, buses, and sports arenas.

 

Once again, hope you feel well soon.

[cruzegirl]

Well it definitely is everywhere, West Coast included.... I have seen numerous people sick both in work and out....I'm a nurse so see alot of it...... I prayed I wouldn't get anything while on my cruise and it worked but now I've been sick for a week..... Ugh.. Better now than while I cruised though:D ........ Lot's of fluid, rest and good hand washing...... And lot's of drugs........ lol....... I'm living on Sudafed........

[cruiseyguy]

A cruiseship is not some sort of germ-free isolation chamber. People get sick---everywhere. This shipboard illness thing has gotten completely out of hand. "Decontamination suits?" Sorry but utterly ridiculous.