Spring 2004 Issue
Charting a Healthier Course
CDC helps protect cruise ship travelers
Before you take your next cruise, be sure to find out how your ship scored on its most recent sanitation inspection. Inspection scores and reports, produced by CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program, are available online for more than 140 cruise ships. They are also published in the Summary of Sanitation Inspections of International Cruise Ships - known as the “green sheet” - which is distributed to more than 3,000 travel-related service providers worldwide.
CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program, established in the mid 1970s, helps the cruise industry develop and implement comprehensive sanitation programs to minimize risks for gastrointestinal diseases, like those that cause diarrhea.
The rigorous program has led to an 87 percent decrease in disease outbreaks among passengers over the past 25 years, despite record ship and passenger growth.
“The number of outbreaks caused by food and water on cruise ships has dropped dramatically since our program began,” says Dave Forney, chief of the Vessel Sanitation Program. “That’s because of the work we’ve done not only in inspections, surveillance and training, but also in developing guidelines for sanitary construction of areas like the ship galley and potable water system.”
A model public-private partnership between public health experts and private industry, the Vessel Sanitation Program is the only CDC program funded completely by user fees. Each vessel owner pays a fee, based on tonnage, for inspections. CDC conducts two unannounced inspections each year on all participating ships that have a foreign itinerary and carry 13 or more passengers. Inspections focus on areas such as food, water supply, personal hygiene, spas and pools, and general ship cleanliness.
Forney notes that cruise ship norovirus outbreaks, like those reported over the last year, aren’t typically linked to food and water sources: ill passengers on board transmit the virus through person-to-person contact. “When you go on a cruise, be very diligent about washing your hands thoroughly with warm water and soap,” he advises. “It’s perfectly safe to take a cruise. You’re more likely to hear about an outbreak because the Vessel Sanitation Program requires mandatory surveillance and reporting.