French authorities have confined more than 1,700 passengers and crew aboard the Ambassador Cruise Line ship Ambition, docked in Bordeaux, after a 90-year-old passenger died from a suspected norovirus infection. About 50 others are showing symptoms of the highly contagious gastrointestinal illness.
The vessel arrived Tuesday in the western French port carrying 1,233 passengers, mostly from Britain and Ireland. The ship departed the Shetland Islands on May 6, making stops in Belfast, Liverpool, and Brest before reaching Bordeaux. It was scheduled to continue to Spain before the quarantine was imposed.
Norovirus, a form of gastroenteritis causing vomiting and diarrhea, spreads rapidly in confined environments like cruise ships.