Norovirus Update: More Than 250 Passengers Of British Cruise Ship Docked In The US Sick

More than 250 passengers of Balmoral, a British cruise ship have gotten sick with the gastrointestinal condition norovirus. The British cruise ship has 919 mainly British passengers, who are on a five-week "Old England to New England" cruise from the UK to the U.S.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that from 919 passengers, there were 252 have fallen ill with norovirus. They also found out that eight of the 520 crew members are also affected with norovirus, according to CNN News.

Fred Olsen Cruises, the company that managed the Balmoral cruise ship said in a press release that gastroenteritis has affected a number of guests on board the cruise ship, according to Nature World News. The management is now cooperating with all the investigating agencies.

The cruise ship left Southampton, England last April 16. It stopped in Portland, Maine. Balmoral is the first ship to visit Portland this 2016.

Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling greeted the passengers upon their arrival on Sunday morning. He said that he could see there were people wiping things down constantly. They got onto the elevator and they wiped the elevator down.

The ship left Portland. It is heading to Saint John, in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. It is due to return to Southampton on May 20.

Norovirus is a contagious virus that you can get from an infected person, touching contaminated surfaces and contaminated food and water. It causes your intestines or stomach to get inflamed.

Norovirus costs billions of dollars globally each year https://t.co/eKb63bVGN2

— JHU Public Health (@JohnsHopkinsSPH) May 9, 2016

Its symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and stomach pain. There is no medicine to treat this virus. You just need to drink plenty of fluids so that you won't be dehydrated, which is caused by vomiting and diarrhea.