Gastro outbreak hits 1,700 passengers on British cruise

Paris: Over 1,700 passengers and crew on a British cruise ship were ordered to remain on board after an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness, French authorities said Wednesday.

They dismissed any link to a deadly hantavirus outbreak on another vessel that has put European health authorities on alert.

The Ambition was midway through a 14-night cruise from Belfast and Liverpool that was due to take in ports in northern Spain and along France’s Atlantic coast.

It reached Bordeaux on Tuesday evening, according to the operator, Ambassador Cruise Line.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 16 gastrointestinal outbreaks on cruise ships in 2024, the highest total in more than a decade.

Most were caused by norovirus, and the recent surge has been linked to a new strain of the highly contagious virus.

The prefect of Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and Gironde department, Etienne Guyot, suspended disembarkation from the Ambition and restricted the vessel’s interactions with the port of Bordeaux.

He acted on the recommendation of the regional health agency, the Agence Regionale de Sante Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the joint statement said.

Up to 50 passengers showed symptoms consistent with acute digestive infection after the ship’s captain alerted

French authorities on Tuesday evening, the statement said.

Those affected were treated by the ship’s doctor and isolated in their cabins.

A medical team supervised by France’s maritime medical coordination service, under the authority of the maritime prefect, was dispatched to the vessel.

Samples are being analysed by the infectious diseases department of the Bordeaux teaching hospital, the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Bordeaux, to identify the pathogen, assess transmission risks and determine further measures.

“There is no reason to establish a link between this outbreak aboard a cruise ship from Belfast and Liverpool and the hantavirus cases detected aboard the MV Hondius,” the joint statement said.

The hantavirus outbreak aboard the Hondius last month prompted a multi-country response and the hospitalisation of passengers in Britain, France, Spain and the United States. Three passengers died and there have been nine confirmed cases, with another two suspected.

The measures applied to the Ambition were described as temporary, proportionate and subject to continuous review, with a further update expected later Wednesday once analysis results were available.

Ambassador Cruise Line said earlier Wednesday that a 92-year-old male passenger had died on Sunday, although he had not reported symptoms consistent with the illness, and that his cause of death was yet to be established by a coroner.