French health officials confined passengers and crew aboard the Ambition, a British cruise ship, after an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness emerged during the vessel’s voyage. The ship reached Bordeaux on Tuesday evening while midway through a 14-night cruise originating from Belfast and Liverpool, with ports scheduled along northern Spain and France’s Atlantic coast. Regional prefect Étienne Guyot suspended disembarkation and restricted the ship’s port interactions based on recommendations from regional health authorities.
Up to 50 passengers exhibited symptoms consistent with acute digestive infection after the ship’s captain notified French authorities on Tuesday evening. Those showing illness were isolated in their cabins and received treatment from the ship’s medical staff. A medical response team was deployed to the vessel, and clinical samples were sent to a Bordeaux hospital for analysis. According to Ambassador Cruise Line, the company operating the vessel, case numbers rose after passengers embarked in Liverpool on May 9, with 48 passengers and one crew member displaying symptoms as of late Wednesday morning.
French authorities explicitly stated there was no connection between the Ambition outbreak and a separate hantavirus incident aboard another cruise ship, the MV Hondius, which has prompted a multinational health response. The Hondius outbreak resulted in three confirmed deaths and nine verified cases, with two additional suspected cases identified across Britain, France, Spain and the United States.
Ambassador Cruise Line reported that a 92-year-old male passenger died on Sunday, though he had not presented symptoms consistent with the gastrointestinal illness, and the cause of death remained pending coroner determination. All shore excursions at Bordeaux were canceled, with affected passengers offered full refunds. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 23 gastrointestinal outbreaks on cruise ships in the previous year, with most caused by norovirus variants.
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