Norovirus outbreak on Velocean

[Bookworm11]

The end result, I lost 27 pounds! 27! I had diarrhea, dry heaves, a bloated stomach, a stomach that felt like someone was doing backflips all the time, a fever, and headaches. I'd be fine and dry heaves would come out of nowhere. I'm still really weak, and fairly pale. I had to go back to work Monday (the worst was feeling ill 10 days in a row from 2/2 thru 2/10 ( an extra day in there because I repeated a day in travel), and it's really hard to get thru a day of work. I'm a criminal defense lawyer and I have court every day this week. I really can't miss since I've been gone 5 weeks. And I need to sleep all the time. I'm supposed to have a jury trial in 2 weeks and I'm thinking of continuing it because Im honestly not sure that my body can handle the full blown stress and extra hours of a trial.
The funniest thing is I worried so much about the current in Raja. What someone should have told me is that you don't need practice with diving in current, you need practice with swimming directly into current for sustained periods. All my practice in Cozumel was not swimming directly into current, it was swimming across current, or drift diving a wall with fast current. And I worried tons about negative entries, and I never did one at all!!

 

[Living4Experiences]

I followed your posts here as you did your planning for this trip, and I'm so sorry you got sick. As others have stated, hand sanitizer doesn't do anything against norovirus. Indonesia is not known for the best hygiene practices, so norovirus would spread like wildfire once exposure is recognized. This is a country where toilet paper is optional and no tissue is used when blowing one's nose. It's in the hand and wiped on the pants or the farm blow. It is preventable if we, as humans, followed proper food and water handling measures and washed our hands a lot. Self-quarantining of those infected could have prevented the spread, and your liveaboard operator did you a disservice by not keeping you informed about illnesses on board. Diver safety is supposed to be the number one priority and that includes sanitation.

I have been on many cruise ships with norovirus outbreaks and many liveaboards. The only time I got a stomach sickness was on the liveaboard in Indonesia. It wasn't bad enough to ruin my diving, but I had to live on anti-diarrhea meds for most of the trip. Other divers had to sit out dives because they were too ill. I didn't eat a lot of the food on board, which is probably why I had a mild case. I lost 10 pounds on that trip.

I am concerned for you that you are still feeling sick. Norovirus usually clears up within 2-3 days. What did your doctor say? Did you get any blood or stool tests done? Did he/she test you for a tapeworm?

Before I read your post, I had already done some research on the CDC website about norovirus because the last couple of cruises I was on had norovirus outbreaks. https://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/media...s-Illness_Facts-for-Food-Handlers_3.20.24.pdf

 

[Cornbread O'Malley]

On the up side of this, I had an absolutely wonderful time at my land resort, Dive into Raja Ampat, with top notch diving. They have 15 DMs on staff. While I was there, I saw everyone either had their own DM, or groups of 2 had their own. Lucky me, I had my own!! I had wonderful, wonderful manta time and lots of other great stuff. Then I have 5 great days in a super hotel in Ubud, and 4 days in Sanur, with 3 lovely dives in Painaing -sp? Bay, again with my DM. When I'm feeling human again, I will post an extended trip report. And I did get to snorkel with dolphins for an hour and swim in the freshwater lake full of jellyfish and see the heart shaped lagoon, all of which were awesome ( especially the dolphins), so it wasn't all gloom.

What great experiences! Looking forward to reading your extended trip report.

 

[Soloist]

Luckily it wasn’t bad to miss any dives.

After diving with you several times this does not surprise me. Really hate to hear you were sick, but the crew would have had to strap you to a gurney for you to miss a dive!

 

[Bookworm11]

The doctor had me do bloodwork. I went to the lab for a stool sample, but by that point, it was too late. The stool must be a certain consistency, and mine is normal now. My doctor spent 40 minutes with me today thoroughly reviewing everything, and I am to keep checking in. If I keep losing weight, I'm sure he will check me for a tapeworm. Since Covid, Ive been fanatical about washing my hands twice and singing Happy Birthday. I'm supposed to have a phone call and stay in touch with him. If there is a problem, I get in touch right away.

 

[Dan]

After diving with you several times this does not surprise me. Really hate to hear you were sick, but the crew would have had to strap you to a gurney for you to miss a dive!

Apparently it wasn’t Norovirus. Andrew gave me Cipro 500mg and I got better. No more bloated tummy. Still got the runs for 4-5 days.

I had yogurt for breakfast for a week to rebuild the good bacteria’s in my colon that Cipro killed.