Five cruisers get mysterious infection

A spokesperson for the owners of a Baltic cruise confirmed that six British passengers on board are currently in hospital in Stockholm receiving treatment for what seems to be a ‘pneumonia-like’ infection.

Legionnaire’s disease is the suspected diagnosis, although nothing has been confirmed as of yet. Legionnaire’s disease is a form of pneumonia that thrives in the water and is typically experienced by older people.

All of the passengers taken to hospital are, in fact, elderly. They are expected to remain in hospital for several days.

Wendy Hooper-Greenhill of ship owner Fred Olsen Cruise Lines said that officials from Sweden had procured water samples in an attempt to determine if the infection had occurred from an on board source.

She confirmed that the five women and one man in hospital were British citizens.

There were a total of 756 passengers on board the ‘Black Watch’ cruise ship and a total of 329 crew members. The cruise was scheduled to last 17 nights and had already docked in St Petersburg, Tallinn, Turku and Kemi in Finland and Lulea, Sweden.

“At the moment, not only is the infection a bit of a mystery but how it was contracted is as well,” Hooper-Greenhill said.