Climate change linked to cruise ship illness outbreaks

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-10-05T222332Z_01_N0575882_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-CLIMATE.XML

BOSTON, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Warming ocean waters may have tainted Alaskan oysters with a bacteria that triggered four outbreaks of illness on a cruise ship among people who ate the shellfish raw, researchers reported on Wednesday.

"The rising temperatures of ocean water seem to have contributed to one of the largest known outbreaks of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in the United States," said Joseph McLaughlin of the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, referring to the bacterium responsible for outbreak.

He and his colleagues said 62 people fell ill on four week-long cruises in July 2004. Vibrio parahaemolyticus is the most common cause of seafood-related illness in the United States.

"Alaskan waters were thought to be too cold to support" bacteria levels known to cause the illness, said the McLaughlin team. But when they tracked the outbreaks, the source turned out to be an oyster farm in Prince William Sound, 621 miles (1,000 km) north of any previous source of tainted oysters.

Further tests showed that other oyster facilities in Alaska's Kachemak Bay and southeast Alaska had also begun to harbor the bacteria, which is only believed to grow in oysters where water temperatures are higher than 59 F (15 degrees Celsius).

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One more reason not to take cruises.

and now I have another reason to never go on a cruise ship! :scared:

:kick: