18 Jun 2011
By: JESSICA LIM
A SIX-DAY cruise to Ho Chi Minh City and Redang Island turned ugly for about 100 passengers after they came down with food poisoning symptoms in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The Star Cruises ship SuperStar Virgo had left Singapore on Sunday with about 1,700 passengers.
On Tuesday, it is understood that the 100 affected passengers had lunch at the Grand Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City – where they had gone for a city tour – and also feasted on a Mediterranean buffet dinner on the ship.
Investigations are ongoing to find out the cause of the symptoms, which included vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach cramps, fever and chills.
The ship returned to Singapore yesterday.
Passengers The Straits Times spoke to described the scene on the vessel as “chaotic”, with crowds at its clinic.
Student Cynthia Lim, 22, who fell sick at about 6am on Wednesday, said she had intense cramps, a fever of 39.8 deg C, and was warded in the ship’s intensive care unit.
“I had diarrhoea first, then vomiting. I was literally rolling around the bed in tears,” she said.
She was on the cruise with her boyfriend and his parents.
“We were quarantined in our rooms for the rest of the trip,” added Ms Lim, who has since recovered.
“If we got food poisoning from a roadside stall we picked ourselves, it would have been our fault. But this was food given to us by Star Cruises,” she said.
In a statement to The Straits Times yesterday, Star Cruises said the passengers became ill after the ship had docked in Vietnam.
A spokesman said the company took “all necessary action... to ensure affected passengers received medical attention”.
It declined to say how many people were ill.
A check with Saigontourist Travel Service, which helps Star Cruises make meal arrangements in Ho Chi Minh City, found that it has stopped taking tourists to the Grand Hotel “till further notice”.
Its cruise business manager Lee Thang said Star Cruises had told him that 100 people had been struck with food poisoning after eating at the restaurant there.
Lunch that Tuesday, he said, consisted of shrimp, fish, beef, stir-fried vegetables and rice.
The stop there was part of a city tour which 560 of the ship’s 1,700 passengers had opted for, said Mr Lee, 37, who added that he is working with Star Cruises to investigate the matter.
“We have worked with the hotel for more than 10 years and this has never happened,” he added. “We are very surprised.”
However, he noted: “We are currently not sure it was the restaurant; it could have been dinner.”
Doctors The Straits Times spoke to said the likely cause of the illness was food poisoning, but added that it was difficult to ascertain which meal caused it.
Said Dr Ajith Damodaran, a family physician in private practice: “If so many people develop such symptoms at the same time, it is likely to be food poisoning unless proven otherwise.”
However, he added that it would be difficult to tell if the cause was the food eaten during lunch or dinner on Tuesday.
“It depends on whether the bacteria had already produced the toxins in the food. If so, that causes an immediate reaction.
If not, it will take 12 to 24 hours for the bacteria to multiply in the body,” he said, adding that other factors such as the amount of food eaten and people’s resistance to the bacteria should also be taken into account.
Dr Limin Wijaya, a consultant on infectious diseases at the Singapore General Hospital, said it is not uncommon for food poisoning to strike in cruise liners.
“People are enclosed in a small area, and they eat and drink from one single supply of food prepared by the same group of people,” she said, adding that it is harder to control food quality on a cruise ship as a lot of food has to be prepared in a short time.
In the meantime, passengers like Mr Billy Chu, 25, are uncertain which meal was the cause.
The customer service officer said he saw some crew members at the ship’s clinic, but most of the people who fell sick had gone on the city tour.
“I am really not sure what the source is. If it was the meal at the hotel, it’s a bit weird that the crew was affected,” he said.
Email: limjess@sph.com.sg
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