Cruise passengers to sue over norovirus outbreaks

By Oliver Smith 506PM GMT twelve March 2010

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Island Escape, owned and user by Thomson Holidays Photo ALAMY

Irwin Mitchell, the law firm, is representing some-more than 130 Britons who became ill with suspected norovirus in between Dec eighteen and Feb 6 on house Island Escape a boat owned and operated by Thomson and some-more than 85 people who fell ill on house Fred Olsens Boudicca.

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It has called for an review in to hygiene standards on Island Escape, that offers itineraries in the Mediterranean and Canary Islands, after a series of passengers reported unwashed conditions, damaged lavatories and leaking roofs.

The law organisation has additionally questioned either Boudicca should be cold from use due to stability instances of gastric illness. The boat has allegedly had five outbreaks of norovirus since Oct 2009.

Jill Nettleship, 47, and Robert Fox, 48, from Sheffield, are between those scheming to sue Thomson. They explain they were both struck down with serious gastric seizure on Island Escape in Jan and had to be certified to sanatorium in Tenerife, withdrawal Mr Foxs aged relatives to transport behind to Britain alone. Miss Nettleship criticised the standards of health and hygiene on the ship.

Another passenger, a 55-year-old lady from Hampshire who elite to sojourn anonymous, claimed there were damaged lavatories, tainted odours and flooded cabins. "After dual days at sea, spotless conditions run-down rapidly," she said. "There were unwashed sheets, soppy carpets and leaking ceilings."

The lady who paid �3,500 for her authorised authorised holiday additionally claimed that a roof collapsed underneath the weight of a H2O tank, spilling hot H2O in to a series of cabins, and described staff as "dismissive" and "lacking empathy".

Passengers have since determined a website, cruisefromhell.webs.com, where dozens of complaints and photos have been collated.

Mark Watts, a transport law dilettante at Irwin Mitchell, pronounced "We had complaints about the Island Escape journey boat in 2008 and there were reports of seizure in 2009, so to see large numbers of people entrance to us again this year is really disturbing."

Thomson denied claims of bad hygiene standards on house Island Escape. "Outbreaks of [norovirus] are common, quite inside of contained environments such as hospitals, nursing homes and schools," it pronounced in a statement. "We thus rebut inferences that an conflict on a journey boat is due to bad hygiene standards.

"At Island Cruises, the health and reserve of the business is the first concentration and we are honestly endangered to listen to of any illnesses reported on the boat Island Escape. We closely guard all the ships in the swift to safeguard that the strictest health, safety, hygiene and joy levels the business design are maintained."

Last month,Travel reported that some-more than thirty Britons were suing Thomson after descending ill at the four-star Los Gigantes Hotel in Tenerife.

In 2009, a series of holidaymakers took authorised movement opposite the authorised authorised holiday association after an conflict of norovirus on house the boat Thomson Spirit.

A sum of 86 passengers who have stayed on Fred Olsens boat Boudicca since Oct are additionally posterior authorised movement with Irwin Mitchell. Derek Eaton, 75, and his mother Marina, 70, from Milton Keynes, paid �10,000 for their New Year journey prior to they both became ill on board. They explain they were cramped to their cabin for dual days.

"We feel that Fred Olsen has been really inattentive in subjecting us to a health jeopardy meaningful full well that there had been Norovirus outbreaks on multiform prior cruises on the same ship," pronounced Mr Eaton.

"We should have been since this report and been authorised the event of determining if we wished to ensue with the cruise."

A matter from Fred Olsen Cruise Lines pronounced "Every boat in the Fred Olsen swift follows a really despotic set of procedures and protocols as shortly as there is justification of a gastro-like pathogen carrying been brought on board, and these procedures have been entirely authorized by applicable nautical authorities and the Health Protection Agency.

"The pathogen is really usual and second customarily to the usual cold, is rarely spreading and the symptoms, that are unpleasant, typically last customarily one or dual days and people customarily redeem but treatment."