The realistic version of "Terror Cruise" is more shocking than expected

The "Diamond Princess" cruise became a realistic version of "Terror Cruise" due to the infection of more than 600 people by the new crown virus. With the development of the epidemic, the "poisoned" cruise is no longer just "Diamond Princess", "Westphalia" "Cruises", "Legend of the Mediterranean" cruises, "Extreme Princess" cruises, "Opera cruises" and other names subsequently appeared in newspapers.

On the evening of February 18th, a well-known Japanese infectious disease scientist and professor Kobe University Kentaro Iwata uploaded a video on social media about his amazing discovery on the "Diamond Princess" cruise ship.

He compared the "Diamond Princess" to "New Crown Virus Maker", and bluntly saw him "almost fainted." "Even in Africa against Ebola and Beijing against SARS, it was not so scary." .

Iwata's video caused an uproar, pushing "Diamond Princess" to the cusp. In fact, as William Shafner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University in the United States, said, “whether it ’s coronavirus, norovirus, or flu, cruises are a great place to help spread the virus.” Infectious diseases and ships, There are countless sinful fate.

The Black Death uses a ship as a fuse

Lights up Europe with plague

From 1347 to 1353, the plague known as the Black Death, which swept across Europe, claimed the lives of 25 million Europeans, accounting for one-third of the European population at that time.

As an excellent place for the virus to spread wildly, the Black Death naturally does not "pass off" ships.

In 1347, a plague broke out in the city of Carfa in the Republic of Genoa on the northwest coast of Italy. Subsequently, a group of Genoese in the city fled by a number of merchant ships. The plague was first transmitted to Messina, Sicily in September of the same year; Arrived in Genoa and Marseille, France, and Venice and Pisa in January 1348, and Florence, a major town in March. Then the plague spread to France, Spain, Britain, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and even Egypt, Damascus, Mecca, Yemen and other Middle East regions even spread to Russia in 1352. The Black Death used a boat as a fuse to ignite Europe with plague.

According to an article in Scientific American in Italy, the last plague in Italy and Europe was in 1944. At that time, a British steamer from Malta entered the port of Taranto, which was shortly after becoming an Allied naval base. The ship was loaded with waste fabric and rags. These scraps will be made into second-class fabric. During the voyage, a sailor died of plague, but instead of reporting the incident, the captain also obtained permission to berth, unload and land. A few days later, at the end of 1944, the first cases of plague infections appeared in the army, and citizens were infected.

"Ticonderoga"

A floating plague city

In 1851, the state of Victoria, Australia ushered in the first wave of gold rush, the British Immigration Commission began to sponsor families in Scotland, Ireland and the United Kingdom to work in Victoria Farms, in 1852, the American commercial sailing ship Ticonderoga brought immigrants to Australia. On August 4, the Ticonderoga departed from Liverpool, UK, to Melbourne, Australia. There were 814 migrants on board, most of them farm workers and shepherds in Scotland.

Within less than a week of the voyage, typhoid fever broke out on board. On August 12, the first passenger died. Due to congestion, poor ventilation and poor sanitary conditions, more and more passengers became infected with the disease, and eventually hundreds of people became infected with typhus, killing more than a hundred people, including 86 children. The Ticonderoga became a floating plague city.

After 90 hellish days at sea, on November 5, 1852, the Ticonderoga raised a yellow flag for quarantine and sailed into Port Phillip. At this point the food and medicine on board have been consumed.

The patients were successively transferred to simple tents on shore for further treatment, and the situation began to improve. The Australian government quickly set up a simple quarantine station on the beach, requisitioned two residential houses as hospitals, and purchased the Lysander as a quarantine scrap ship. Through the tireless efforts of everyone, the vast majority of passengers on the Ticonderoga survived, recovered, and successfully became new immigrants to the country.

Through this tragedy, the government recognized the horror of the plague and decided to build more standard quarantine stations and hospitals on the basis of simple beach quarantine stations. This quarantine station was still guarded until the early 20th century. This country is free from the killing of exotic diseases.

The scariest "Spanish flu" in history

Inseparable from the spread of maritime routes

The "Spanish flu" that broke out in 1918 was the worst epidemic in the history of the world, causing at least 50 million deaths worldwide, even exceeding the total number of deaths in World War I and World War II. "Spanish flu" first appeared in Europe, the United States, and parts of Asia, and then quickly spread throughout the world. It was called the Spanish flu not because the flu broke out in Spain, but because about 8 million people in Spain were infected with the disease, and even the Spanish king was infected with the disease. At that time, the end of the First World War, the soldiers returned to the country, all countries were spreading good news, and Spain was honestly exposed to the flu outbreak in its country, so it was called the Spanish influenza.

As for the occurrence of the "Spanish flu", it is widely believed that the United States was the original source. In 1918, the United States was believed to be engaged in two wars, one against Germany and its military allies, and one against a deadly flu virus. Before lunch on March 11, 1918, a soldier at Finston Barracks, Kansas, had a fever, accompanied by a sore throat and headache. By noon, more than 100 soldiers had similar symptoms. A few days later on the weekend, there were already more than 500 "cold" patients in the barracks.

On August 27, the first case was found in Boston. Two days later, there were 58 cases, 11 of which were very serious. They were transferred to the Naval Hospital, and a medical infection occurred on September 1.

In early September, a naval ship from Boston brought the flu to Philadelphia, and the disease broke out at the naval base. Philadelphia had the largest naval base in the United States at that time. On September 7, 1918, the naval base in Philadelphia received 300 sailors who were transferred from Boston, most likely carrying the virus. As a result, the first two sailors who became ill died two days later; two weeks later, more than 900 became ill; after that, the number of patients began to increase rapidly. Although more and more evidence is suggesting that "this ship may be infected", Philadelphia has not adopted a closed quarantine for warships and held a 200,000 war fundraiser on September 28 as scheduled. Three days later, 31 hospitals in Philadelphia were overcrowded, and 117 people died of this strange "flu"; three weeks later, the number of deaths exceeded 4,500; in November of the same year, the number exceeded 13,000.

In August 1918, a deadly flu broke out on a British ship just leaving Sierra Leone. Prior to the ship's arrival in the UK, 75% of the crew were infected, 7% of the crew died, and similar incidents occurred in several other vessels.

It can be said that in 1918, this deadly flu spread along the trade routes and shipping routes through the virus carriers to the world, sweeping North America, Europe, Asia, Brazil, and the South Pacific, sweeping in less than a year. Globally, it will cause extremely serious casualties.

Fateful

Aurora

Attacked by Norwalk virus

On October 20, 2003, the British cruise ship "Aurora" set sail from Southampton. This 76,000-ton luxury cruise ship is a 17-day luxury cruise from Britain to the Mediterranean.

On October 26, when the "Aurora" arrived in Palma, Spain, the ship broke out with the Norwalk virus. Norwalk virus is a winter vomiting pathogen that can spawn in crowded spaces such as cruise ships and classrooms and can be transmitted through contact. All areas where the patient has touched the ship's railings, door handles, buttons, etc. may be infected, and symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting may occur after the infection. Due to the rapid spread of the disease, in just a few days, 494 passengers and 17 crew members were infected.

In order to prevent the spread of the virus, passengers can only stay in the cabin, and the restaurant attendants wearing masks and gloves deliver meals every day. The luxury cruise ship has become a hospital.

In the case of a virus invasion, the mentality of passengers is also different. Some passengers complained that the original luxury tour had become a crime. They had been confined in a cabin without windows for three or four days. They had been vomiting and diarrhea. They were suffering, and the ship was full of disinfectant water. Some passengers also expressed their understanding that the staff on the cruise ship had made great efforts and disinfection and restricting patient activities were also necessary. Without strict quarantine measures, most passengers may be infected, which is the real disaster.

Big Mac Ocean Oasis

Hundreds of tourists infected with Norovirus

In January 2019, the Royal Caribbean Corporation announced that its Ocean Oasis had a total of 277 people including crew members infected with suspected Norovirus during a Caribbean voyage. The voyage ended early and the cruise returned to Florida. Passengers will receive a full refund from the cruise line.

Norovirus is an infectious virus that causes vomiting and diarrhea. A person may become infected through direct contact with another infected person, consumption of contaminated food or water, or touching their mouth and nose after contacting the surface of a contaminant . Most cases of norovirus occur in food supply establishments such as restaurants.

Royal Caribbean's Ocean Oasis cruise ship, which officially launched in late 2009, is one of the largest luxury cruise ships in the world today, known as the "Sea Giant". According to Palin, a passenger of the “Ocean Oasis”, the cruise ship docked in Haiti for the first time on the 8th and hosted a buffet lunch on land. That night, Palin and her mother began to experience symptoms such as vomiting and food poisoning. . Later, Royal Caribbean confirmed that 277 passengers and staff members were affected and became ill, so the voyage ended early and the cruise returned to Florida. Spokesman Torres said, "We think the right thing is to get everyone home as soon as possible, not the guests. Worry about their health. "

Mumps virus outbreak in Fort McHenry

Isolation at sea for more than two months

In March 2019, a large-scale rare mumps virus broke out on the US Navy's amphibious landing ship "Fort McHenry". Since docking at the Constanta port in Romania on January 7, it has been isolated at sea for two Many months.

When the "Fort McHenry" set sail, the ship carried a total of more than 700 people. During the voyage, it never called at any port except in the Constanta port of Romania.

Mumps virus first appeared in the Fort McHenry in December 2018. More than 20 ship personnel were infected, including the crew and some Marine Corps soldiers. These patients received isolation treatment on the ship, and at the same time Clean and disinfect your living and working areas.

It is reported that mumps virus is an infection of facial salivary glands, which can cause parotid glands, sublingual glands, submandibular glands to swell, headache, and fever, which can cause a variety of complications. Men also easily cause testicular swelling. Patients usually start with these symptoms 16 to 18 days after infection and return to normal 7 to 10 days after onset. The good news is that the situation of these infected people is stable. As a precaution, more than 700 crew members on the ship have received the relevant vaccination.

A U.S. Navy spokesman said that a large warship is like a college dormitory, where people live and illnesses occur from time to time, but this is rare. Eventually, medical personnel took control of the situation through various efforts, but it was also unusual for an American warship to spend more than two months at sea without calling at a port.

Text / Courtesy of our reporter Zhang Jia / Xiaoxiao