Cruise Ship Had Just Passed Inspection

A Carnival Cruise Lines ship on which dozens of passengers were stricken in recent days had passed an unannounced inspection last month and appeared to be free of any contaminants that would account for the outbreak, federal authorities said Monday.

But even as authorities were downplaying the seriousness of the incident, passengers were complaining that the illness was much more widespread than ship owners are reporting.

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the Carnival ship Jubilee scored 91 points out of 100 on standards of sanitation and cleanliness, and that the still unexplained outbreak that felled at least 52 passengers during a Mexican cruise that ended Sunday does not warrant a new inspection or docking of the vessel.

The Jubilee sailed Sunday on its regularly scheduled run to Mexico resorts.

Preliminary testing of stool samples from some of the sick passengers did not reveal abnormalities, said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner. The agency will continue the testing and is examining medical logs kept on board but does not plan further actions.

Skinner said no on-board inspection of the vessel is planned because the number of illnesses reported by the ship’s physician--52 out of a passenger load totaling 1,897--falls below the 3% threshold that would prompt a full inquiry.

“Certainly if more information were made available to the CDC that would warrant further inquiry we would consider that,” said Skinner. “However, nothing unusual has come up at this point.”

However, several passengers continued to insist Monday that Carnival officials have grossly underestimated the scope of the outbreak and estimate that hundreds of people were taken ill.

Passengers were afflicted with vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms resembling food poisoning, but no cause of the illness has been determined. Carnival spokesman Tim Gallagher said an airborne virus is believed to be the culprit. In addition to the vacationers, 16 of the ship’s 660 crew members were felled.

Gallagher conceded that perhaps as many as 150 passengers may have become ill but chose not to be treated at the infirmary, accounting for the relatively small number of cases reported to CDC.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office also was conducting an autopsy on a 52-year-old Berkeley man who died on board. Carnival officials and the CDC have said that, based on medical records, it does not appear the death was related to the outbreak.

Coroner’s spokesman Scott Carrier said Monday that an initial examination was inconclusive and would require further toxicological studies that could take perhaps weeks to obtain results. Officials with the Miami-based cruise line had originally stated that Russell Lum had been ill before boarding the ship, but now they say that information was wrong. Family members have told the company that although Lum had been under the care of a physician before boarding, he did not become ill until after the onset of the cruise, Gallagher said.

Gallagher also said that Lum appeared to have serious gastrointestinal problems but that the ship’s doctor believes they were different in nature than those that afflicted the other passengers.

Lum, who was traveling with his wife and other relatives, sought initial treatment about 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to Carnival officials.

“At that point he was in very bad condition, barely conscious,” said Gallagher. “He died at about 3:34 a.m. He had been sick since the inception of the cruise, but we had only been advised of his condition about an hour and 45 minutes before he died.”

However, one passenger said Lum become ill about the same time that other passengers were beginning to complain of gastrointestinal problems.

Kristen Wasson of Canyon Lake was on the cruise with a roommate and said they had to abandon their cabin when fumes seeped into a cabin window, causing dizziness and nausea. They spent several hours sleeping in the purser’s lounge, but were told by ship’s officials that a room had been vacated by a family who had decided to debark at Puerto Vallarta to vacation.

Wasson said there was a stench in the room that was nearly overpowering, and wet stains covered the carpet.

She said that the next night a bill was slipped under the door showing charges for entertaining, drinks, photographs and other ship’s amenities during the first part of the week. The bill had Lum’s name on it.

“We didn’t know until we got off the boat that we were in the room where that man died,” said Wasson. “I need to know for myself what we were breathing and what that man died of. If they had told me [what the circumstances were] there is no way I would have set foot in that room.”

Another passenger, Vickie Bratcher of Camarillo, said her party of five became ill late Tuesday and Wednesday. She said she became friendly with one crew member who confided that several crew members from the previous weeks’ voyage had become ill.

CDC had reported that one crew member had been reported ill in the previous two weeks.

“We felt it had carried over and spread that way,” she said. “None of us had been sick before we got on. It just worries me because the ship has gone out again.”

Gallagher said Carnival is conducting independent tests and at this point is not offering refunds or other compensations. “The vast majority of guests weren’t affected at all,” he said.