Cruises top the list of illness complaints

National injury law firm, Irwin Mitchell, have revealed that almost a third of holiday complaints reported last year were for cruises.

The company revealed that cruise holidays made up 32% of of their cases, followed by holidays to the Dominican Republic (14%), Egypt (12%), Turkey (11%), and Tunisia (8%).

The law firm's website states: “Although not technically a destination, cruises have topped the complaints list for the past six years and shows no sign of letting up with several prominent outbreaks on board popular ships.”

In order to help deal with foreign standards of hygiene and bacterial diseases, such as, E-Coli, salmonella, and cryptosporidium, Irwin Mitchell are asking tour operators to do more.

Lawyers say that bacterial diseases like these could be avoided if better hygiene standards were provided.

A partner and head of the international personal injury team at Irwin Mitchell, Suki Chhokar, said: “Unfortunately, the same issues, such as poor food preparation and storage and unclean swimming pools are responsible for the majority of the cases we deal with.

“It is worrying that many of the destinations and indeed many of the individual hotels and cruise liners featured in our research have appeared in our previous research. We are especially concerned about the number of cruise passengers still falling ill on board cruise liners.

“Tour operators and cruise line operators should take seriously their responsibility to their customers to ensure that the appropriate standards of hygiene, health and safety are maintained.

“Gastric illness and food poisoning can be very serious and we have seen first-hand the effects of such illnesses on many of our clients including those who have contracted potentially fatal illnesses including salmonella, cryptosporidium and E-Coli while on holiday.”

Irwin Mitchell’s report can be found on their official website here http://www.irwinmitchell.com/newsandmedia/2016/august/irwin-mitchells-international-personal-injury-team-reveals-worst-five-holiday-hotspots-jq-1020319

Heading on a cruise? Make sure you have suitable cruise travel insurance in place before you travel.

Published 01 Aug 2016

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