Cruise ship lands in Seattle with 115 sick

SEATTLE — The Celebrity cruise ship Mercury returned to Seattle on Friday morning with 115 people who had a gastrointestinal illness during their 7-night voyage to Alaska, the cruise company said.

Three of the ship’s 847 crew members also experienced the illness, a suspected Norovirus brought onboard by someone previously exposed. The Mercury carried 2,034 passengers on the voyage. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Noroviruses affect 23 million Americans annually. The only illness more prevalent is the common cold.

“The reason you hear about Norovirus on cruise ships is because they are required to report every incidence of gastrointestinal illness,” said Dave Forney, chief of the vessel sanitation program of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Protection, in a statement. “Nowhere else in the public health system of the United States is Norovirus a reportable illness. Norovirus is not a cruise-ship illness, but an illness commonly seen in many settings throughout the United States.”