Marines and sailors have been quarantined for two months on a United States Warship after a virus outbreak in December 2018.
NEW: Navy confirms to me that 25 Sailors and Marines aboard the Mayport-based USS Fort McHenry have been sickened with a mumps-like virus https://t.co/UvDkbOtn7x @ActionNewsJax @WOKVNews pic.twitter.com/La8eXkFwHT
— Stephanie Brown (@SBrownReports) March 13, 2019
Out of the 703 military personnel on board the USS Fort McHenry, 25 were diagnosed with parotitis, a virus similar to the mumps, which swells the salivary glands, causes redness, and is infectious between Dec. 22 to 25. After the diagnosis, those infected were quarantined in the on board medical facility and the ship was also disinfected.
“Steady as you go”
The conning officer aboard #USSFortMcHenry gives commands as the ship navigates among other ships in the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group while deployed to the @US5thFleet area of responsibility. #KnowYourMil pic.twitter.com/LSBtEYzCKa— U.S. Dept of Defense (@DeptofDefense) March 15, 2019
“None of the cases are life-threatening and all have either already made or are expected to make a full recovery,” the military said in response to a CNN news report that was the first to report on the outbreak in March.
Since the outbreak, 24 of the 25 personnel infected have returned to their posts.
According to the statement, all personnel aboard the USS Fort McHenry have since received booster vaccinations for measles, mumps, and rubella. They also received training in dealing with the effects of a virus outbreak.
Protocol for Major Disease Outbreaks
According to CNN, the United States military sometimes waits 30 days before porting after an illness is reported.
#USNavy #USSFortMcHenry arrives in #Romania for scheduled port visit, first of its deployment – https://t.co/BpvSYEDrnn pic.twitter.com/vwzTPGOEKa
— U.S. Navy (@USNavy) January 7, 2019
Members of the U.S. Navy and Romanian Navy conducted some joint training aboard the Fort Mac during our visit there…
The last of the illness aboard the USS Fort McHenry was reported on March 9.
Currently, the ship is in the Persian Gulf awaiting military medical personal to give the command to port. A military medical team will be deployed to inspect the personnel on the ship in the next few days to decide whether any more steps must be taken before the ship is allowed to port.
A Serious Outbreak of Norovirus
In January, there was a serious norovirus outbreak on the Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas cruise ship: one of the world’s biggest cruise ships, according to CBS News. A total of 277 guests and crew members were infected by the virus. The ship carried 9,000 people.
After the cruise ship arrived in Jamaica, the passengers used social media to report that they were not allowed off the boat for several hours.
Noroviruses cause gastroenteritis, a stomach and intestine infection, according to Food Safety. These are also the most common stomach and intestine infections in the United States.
Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship Returns to Florida Early After 475 Sickened in Norovirus Outbreak https://t.co/JJ1eTPg2gH pic.twitter.com/zht6gb3Lz0
— KTLA (@KTLA) January 12, 2019
The viruses can be spread through contaminated food and person to person contact. Symptoms of the virus include vomiting, nausea, and stomach pain.
Noroviruses are associated with cruise ships, though out of 74 million cruise ship passengers from 2008 to 2014, only 129,678 were considered to have contracted a norovirus infection, and only one in ten of those were involved in a norovirus outbreak, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CNN contributed to this article
