Voyage Black (Outbreak) Alerts

Voyage Black Alerts provide GI Illness information on cruise ships, cruise lines and cruise ports. Voyage Black Alerts are the highest, and most significant, reportable percentages of GI Illness within the Cruising Healthy Voyage Alert system. This list includes all voyages that have at least thirty people per thousand and has no upper limit as to the number of crew or passengers that are sick with a physician confirmed diagnosis of GI Illness. The Voyage Black Alert, or outbreak, may apply to passengers, crew, or both.

Respectively, the five Cruising Healthy Voyage Alert colors are Green, Yellow, Orange, Red, and Black for increasing percentages of GI Illness. Within this context, Tier IV, the fifth voyage category, is considered a "Voyage Black Alert", which means the GI Illness Incidence on a particular voyage meets the Vessel Sanitation Program's formal definition of a GI Illness Outbreak and should be reported to the general public on the CDC website. Please note that the Cruising Healthy Voyage Alert color-coding system is instituted by Disease Strategies and not supported or acknowledged by the Vessel Sanitation Program or the cruise industry.

Three sorts allow readers to intelligently compare the health performances of cruise ship voyages with any other cruise line or ports. Compensating for a port enables ship medical officers to consider risk management implications when computing their custom Cruising Healthy GI Index. For cruising enthusiasts, empowerment is based on intelligent decisions relating to retrospective GI Illness information before booking a vacation.

Disease Strategies recommends avoiding cruise ships that have had GI Illness Outbreaks (whether reported by the Vessel Sanitation Program or not); possibly avoiding the cruise lines (as they define the risk management protocols for their cruise ships); and possibly the ports they visit depending on the results of your research.