More than 1,700 confined on Bordeaux cruise ship after suspected norovirus death
Health officials said the situation bore no link to the hantavirus outbreak suspected in the deaths of three passengers on the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius, which had departed from Argentina.
French authorities have placed more than 1,700 passengers and crew under confinement on a cruise ship in Bordeaux after an elderly traveler died, officials said, while stressing the incident was not tied to the hantavirus alarm.
Dozens of people aboard the Ambition also reported stomach troubles. The vessel, carrying 1,233 passengers — most of them from Ireland and Britain — arrived in the western French port of Bordeaux yesterday with 514 Indian crew members on board.
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Health officials said the situation bore no link to the hantavirus outbreak suspected in the deaths of three passengers on the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius, which had departed from Argentina.
Officials said one 90-year-old passenger on the Ambition, operated by Ambassador Cruise Line, had died, while about 50 others developed symptoms linked to stomach illness.
They said food poisoning had not been ruled out.
According to officials, symptoms among passengers aboard the Ambition peaked on Monday while the ship was docked in Brest.
The 90-year-old passenger died before the vessel reached the port in Brittany, in northwestern France.
The ship set sail from the Shetland Islands, north of Scotland, on 6 May and called at Belfast and Liverpool before arriving in Bordeaux, where it had been due to leave for Spain.
No security cordon had been set up around the ship as it remained docked in Bordeaux, an AFP reporter said.
From the deck, passengers could be seen photographing the French city.
