Here's to Your Health

When people take a cruise, they think of rejuvenating the body, mind and spirit, not the need for health services. While cruise ships should not be considered a comprehensive medical provider, the cruise lines understand that some people may have health needs during a cruise. Thus, they are committed to providing excellent first response and emergency care to passengers until they can be transferred to a shore side medical facility.

• Most of the cruise lines operating in the North American market have voluntarily worked to create guidelines for onboard medical facilities, even though neither international nor U.S. law requires them to do so.

• The medical facilities guidelines were developed in conjunction with American College of Emergency Physicians (AECP) requirements. Member lines of the International Council of Cruise Lines have agreed to meet or exceed these requirement.

  1. The medical guidelines were put in place to provide reasonable emergency medical care for passengers and crew

  2. The capability to stabilize patients and/or initiate reasonable diagnostic and therapeutic intervention

  3. The evacuation of seriously ill or injured patients when deemed necessary by a shipboard physicians.

• Included in the policies and procedures are 24-hour medical services and staff. Personnel are board certified or hold equivalent international certification or have general practice and emergency or critical care experience

• Personnel must also be conversant in English, must possess a current valid medical license, and must have three years of clinical experience, including minor surgical skills

• The ACEP guidelines specify he type and quantity of equipment that must be available on board, such as X-ray, defibrillators, EKG, wheelchairs, potable oxygen, to name a few, as well as medicines that must be maintained on board.

• A number of cruise lines have established links with shore side medical institutions, which provide professional medical consultations, including in some cases, internet or satelite-based communication.

• Cruise lines and travel agents encourage cruise vacationers to obtain travel insurance, to travel with extra supplies of prescription medications and devices and to fully disclose pre-existing medical conditions before sailing. They point out that many regular health insurance plans do not provide coverage when travelers are outside the United States.

A Clean and Healthy Shipboard Environment

• All cruise ships visiting U.S. ports are subject to periodic health inspections conducted by officers of the Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP), a segment of the U.S. Department of Health, Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

• Ships are inspected four times a year to ensure that they meet the sanitation criteria established by VSP. To pass inspection, a ship must receive a score of 86 or above. This inspection focuses on the following: water supply, spas and pools, employee hygienic practices and cleanliness and physical conditions of the ships.

• Cruise lines work closely with the CDC on comprehensive sanitation programs for the entire life of a ship, starting from design of the ship to renovations to regular inspections and crew training. Cruise lines also report every instance of gastrointestinal illness to the CDC and are the only public facilities required to report such illnesses in the United States.

• Passengers are less likely to contract norovirus ('stomach flu') on a cruise ship than on land. The CDC estimates that 23 million Americans contact norovirus every year making it the second most common illness in the United States. That is 8 percent of the total population, or 1 in 12 people. In comparison, during the highly publicized cases of norovirus in 2002, less than one percent of the cruising public had norovirus - approximately 1 in 4,000 passengers.

• While one passenger is one too many to be ill during a vacation, the CDC reminds everyone to be vigilant in frequent and thorough hand-washing-while on land or at sea. Cruise lines have implemented rigorous cleaning measures to ensure that guests have a healthy environment throughout the ship.