Experts share how to avoid sickness amid surging cruise ship illnesses

Crowded places such as cruises are ripe for spreading illnesses.
This is why it is critical to take necessary precautions, from avoiding certain foods to using common sense cleaning rituals such as washing your hands.
Jill Blumenthal, M.D., an infectious disease specialist at UC San Diego Health shares her best tips to stay safe and avoid getting sick while sailing the open seas with Fox News Digital.
Blumenthal said that because “ships have close living quarters and communal spaces” that bacteria and viruses can “spread more easily.”
“In addition, passengers are regularly joining [the cruise] at different stops, making it easier to introduce illness.”
Cruises may also bring passengers to locations that put them at increased risk of infectious diseases like malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, Zika, chikungunya and Lyme disease due to exposure to mosquito or tick bites, the CDC warned. 
Travelers are also more susceptible to food-borne illnesses, which can easily be transmitted person-to-person on a cruise ship.
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