Hundreds get sick with intestinal bug on 3rd straight cruise on same ship from SC port

Hundreds end up sick on another cruise from SC

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Hundreds of passengers have taken ill with an intestinal bug on a Celebrity Cruise ship’s third straight trip from South Carolina.

Cruise line spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said 350 of the 1,829 passengers on the Celebrity Mercury got ill during the latest cruise which left Charleston on March 8.

The ship canceled a Monday port call and was returning to Charleston a day earlier than scheduled. It has been undergoing cleaning at sea and will be cleaned again in Charleston.

Officials say hundreds of passengers and crew got sick during two other cruises that returned to Charleston recently.

Tests linked the first outbreak to the common norovirus. The virus can spread quickly in closed quarters and is hard to eliminate because people who have been exposed can reinfect places they frequent.