Good hygiene key, says CMO

Chief Medical Officer The Most Honourable Dr Kenneth George is calling on cruise ships to “step up” their medical health protocols.

Reacting to concerns about the recent norovirus outbreak on the Queen Mary 2, which docked in Barbados on December 29, George said it had become more commonplace for bacterial and viral outbreaks to occur on board cruise ships. He said while there had seen some improvement as it was in the interest of the ships to protect their brands, more still needed to be done.

“The ships need to step up their protocols with respect to hand washing, preparation of food – keeping hot foods hot and cold foods cold. If you have an environment where people are forced to mix together, you get outbreaks of respiratory disease, and if the principles of food hygiene are not being adhered to, you may get gastrointestinal illnesses, including norovirus, on the ship,” he said.

Outbreaks

A check online showed that 326 of the 2 565 passengers (12.71 per cent) and 65 of the 1 233 crew members (5.27 per cent) on the Queen Mary 2 had come down with symptoms of norovirus.

A story in the online New York Post stated that “2024 was the worst year for stomach virus outbreaks on cruise ships in over a decade”.

NPR, an independent, nonprofit United States media organisation, revealed there were 16 outbreaks on cruise ships last year “from norovirus, salmonella, E. coli or other unidentified pathogens”, adding this was “the largest number of cruise ship outbreaks in 12 years”.

However, George said Barbados had little to fear, as the island had top-notch international medical security protocols.

“There is no cause for undue concern . . . . We have a system in CARPHA (Caribbean Public Health Agency) where we monitor the health of a ship in terms of public health disease in general and we get that information long before the ship even enters Barbadian waters,” he told the Saturday Sun.

“Ships are required to report their health status to their potential ports of entry. It’s a requirement by the IHR (International Health Regulations) and some other international treaties, so they tend to be very forthcoming . . . so that we can plan beforehand.”

Screening process

The Chief Medical Officer also said Barbados had a “decent” public health system and the food preparation

was also “fairly decent”, so the island did not register as many cases of gastroenteritis as other jurisdictions, far less deaths.

He noted, though, the importance of cruise tourism to Barbados and said the aim was not to turn any ship away.

“In Barbados, sick passengers must remain on board the ships. There’s a screening process where sick passengers shouldn’t be allowed off the ship or the conveyance if they’re having symptoms. Many of the ships today have areas for isolation and quarantine . . . as well as testing laboratories.

“I think, if there’s greater than a two per cent threshold, we are informed. There are different thresholds which give us assistance in making a determination of what to do but because Barbados is a home port, we can’t be denying access.

“Even during COVID, we had fairly liberal approach. We weren’t turning back ships and so forth because that’s not going to spread disease. All you need to do is to make sure that the people who are sick aboard a vessel don’t exit that vessel or are placed in the appropriate isolation or quarantine so that it limits transmission,” he said.

George advised Barbadians to be cautious when cruising and to know the difference between food poisoning, which could occur within hours, and gastroenteritis, which could take days before symptoms presented. He said norovirus was a subset of gastroenteritis and while most people had an uncomfortable time with its symptoms, they were not usually life-threatening, though he cautioned the very young and very old were at greater risk.

Two weeks ago, George assured Barbadians there was no need to panic over the Oropouche virus in Barbados despite the United States Centers for Disease Control issuing a travel health advisory. He said this was a standard protocol and the presence of the virus was not a public health emergency, as it was a mild disease, “although poor outcomes have been noted in a minority of cases”. (CA)

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