Australian cruise ship hit with gastro outbreak on way to Singapore

A cruise ship that left Perth earlier this month has been hit with a highly-contagious bout of gastro, leaving a portion of passengers infected by the virus.

A cruise ship that departed Perth earlier this month has ended its voyage in Singapore on a not-so-happy note, after a bout of norovirus broke out on-board.

It is understood around 16 passengers on board the ship had symptoms of the virus before everyone disembarked on the final day of the trip in Singapore. The voyage, which departed Fremantle on November 1 as part of a 12-night trip, had two thousand passengers on board.

Symptoms of norovirus generally last between one and three days, with medical experts recommending regularly handwashing to avoid the disease.

A gastro outbreak has disrupted the Sun Princess’s 12-night voyage. Picture: Liam Kidston.

A spokesman for Carnival Australia said despite initial reports, the vast majority of guests on board were not impacted by the viral outbreak.

“The vast majority of the 2000 guests on Sun Princess were unaffected but it takes relatively few cases of illness to be reported for on-board sanitation measures to be increased,” the statement provided to news.com.au read.

“Creating and maintaining a healthy on-board environment is always a priority with the highest public health standards employed based on best international practice. On-board sanitation was swiftly stepped up following some guests reporting gastrointestinal symptoms confirmed as being due to Norovirus.

“Out of an abundance of care and in line with best practice, extra cleaning of the terminal was also carried out on Wednesday.”

The ship was docked in Singapore.

It’s not the first time the Sun Princess has been plagued by a virus on-board.

In 2017, about 140 passengers fell ill with gastro a fortnight after a similar outbreak on the vessel during a previous cruise. At the time, the Sun Princess returned to Brisbane about 7am after its 14-day trip around New Zealand.

In 2018, a further 200 people were struck down with illness on-board another ship, called the Sea Princess, which is also part of the Princess Cruises fleet.

During this voyage, the ship was completing its final leg of a two-week round trip between Brisbane and New Zealand.

At the time of the outbreak, Queensland Health confirmed to the ABC that on-board testing found norovirus to be the cause of increased gastro cases.

“Around 200 people were believed to have been infected with the virus,” a spokesman said.

“Appropriate sanitation procedures and outbreak control measures have been implemented, and the vessel is expected to undergo further comprehensive cleaning while in Brisbane.”

The Sea Princess can hold up to 2000 guests and 910 crew and features a four-storey atrium, casino, pools and sporting facilities.