Cruising Healthy Voyage Alerts for GI Illness
Cruising Healthy Voyage Alerts relate to cruise ships, cruise lines, and cruise ports that experience some amount of GI Illness and self-report that illness to the CDC Vessel Sanitation Program in Atlanta, GA.
The Disease Strategies Alert system consists of four colors that correspond with 'increasing' levels of gastrointestinal illness. A Voyage Yellow Alert means passengers should use the first level of caution when touching any public surfaces, including common utensils in the ship cafeterias. A Voyage Orange Alert means that passengers should use some extra caution and avoid crowds, and a Voyage Red Alert means that cruise passengers should avoid crowds when dining, inaminate objects (fomites) including slot machines, while onboard and exiting the voyage.
Voyage Black Alerts for GI Illness – Tier IV
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 color-coded 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.
The Vessel Sanitation Program considers any cruise ship voyage that meets or exceeds 3% of the crew OR passenger population to be a "formal" GI Illness outbreak. And, according to CDC regulations, anytime this percentage criteria is met, it should be announced as an outbreak on the VSP website. The 3% is an arbitrary threshold defined by the VSP, and has no upper limit.
