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The cause of the gastrointestinal illness isn’t known. (Representative pic)

Several passengers on board a cruise ship in the US have mysteriously been struck down with vomiting and diarrhoea, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an alert on Wednesday. According to the press note, at least 123 passengers and 16 crew members travelling on the Queen Victoria have reported falling ill since the voyage set off on January 22 from Florida. The cause of the gastrointestinal illness isn’t known, health officials said, but they added that the main symptoms among those on board the vessel included diarrhoea and vomiting. 

“Number of passengers who have reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of passengers onboard: 123 of 1,824 (6.74%),” the CDC said in the alert. “Number of crew who have reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of crew onboard: 16 of 967 (1.65%),” it added. 

In response to the mysterious outbreak, the CDC said that the Cunard Cruise Line ship had isolated the sick passengers and crew, and “increased cleaning and disinfection procedures according to the ship’s outbreak prevention and response plan”. The health agency’s Vessel Sanitation Program is currently monitoring the situation on board, the CDC added.

“The gastrointestinal illness cases reported are totals for the entire voyage and do not represent the number of active (symptomatic) gastrointestinal cases at any given port of call or at disembarkation,” the health agency noted. 

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According to the New York Post, the Queen Victoria ship set off on a 16-night voyage from Fort Lauderdale, Florida on January 22. The vessel is scheduled to make a stop in San Francisco on February 7 before docking in Honolulu five days later.

Meanwhile, this comes weeks after passengers on board a Florida-based cruise ship came down with an unknown illness. Passengers on the cruise ship reported symptoms of gastroenteritis, or the stomach flu, after setting off from Jacksonville. One passenger, Miranda Hill said her bout of illness was so bad that she started hurling blue vomit. “My throw up was bright blue and I have never eaten anything blue and every time I look up blue throw up, it has to deal with a poisoning,” she said.