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On April 22, 2010, Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines declared that dozens of passengers aboard the Carnival Ecstasy were hurt on April 21, 2010 after the ship was forced to make a sharp turn off the coast of Mexico to avoid a collision with a buoy, according to a recent cbs4.com report.

A Carnival spokeswoman stated that 60 guests and one crew member were slightly injured and that some unsecured objects aboard the ship were damaged. The ship was carrying about 2,340 passengers and 900 crew members. The accident took place as the ship was headed back to its home port of Galveston, Texas.

The ship was traveling off Mexico’s Yucatan coast when a partially submerged buoy was spotted in the water. To avoid hitting the buoy, the ship was forced to make a sharp turn without the chance to warn passengers.

In a telephone interview with CBS affiliate KHOU in Houston, cruise passenger Patrice Edwards said the boat rocked to one side and tilted for several minutes.

“We go to sleep, the next thing we know, [my husband] rolled and hit the floor, I rolled and hit the floor—the whole boat is going to the side,” Edwards said. “Everything you can hear, everybody’s cabin is just falling and crashing to the floor.”

Edwards said she and other passengers were surprised, and didn’t know what was happening.

“We get up, and I look out the door and everyone is running back to their rooms to get their life rafts. I mean the whole boat just shifted,” Edwards said. “Everyone had their life rafts and that’s when they were running with people on stretchers.”

An estimated 15 million Americans choose cruises for their travel getaways. Over the years, there had been more reports of passengers suffering ailments due to bacterial infection outbreaks aboard cruise ships. On March 18, 2010, the Celebrity Mercury cruise ship was hit by an outbreak of intestinal illness for a third straight trip from South Carolina, according to a recent Associated Press news report.

Celebrity Cruises brought in extra crew members to scrub the ship down for three days, The company said 369 of more than 1,800 passengers became ill following a March 8 departure. Hundreds of passengers got sick with the norovirus on two previous Mercury cruises this year from Charleston. The norovirus can spread quickly in closed quarters with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the cause of the outbreak on the latest cruise has not yet been determined, but passengers reported symptoms including diarrhea and vomiting.

When the first Mercury cruise returned February 26, the vessel remained in port an extra day for cleaning. This time, the Mercury will remain three days for cleaning before it is scheduled to sail again on Sunday.

Celebrity Cruises spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said the line is bringing 50 additional crew members to Charleston to help clean and a local company will steam the carpets in all staterooms and public areas. Celebrity Cruises is owned by Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

CDC spokesman Ricardo Beato said the sailing could be delayed if government vessel sanitation officials or if the Celebrity Cruises staff feel there hasn’t been enough time to decontaminate.

The sailings by the Mercury marked the start of Charleston’s first year-round cruising season. There will be 67 cruise calls by various lines in the city this year. In the past, there had been only a handful of winter cruises.

The recent swine flu epidemic has people worldwide taking extra sanitary precautions. Gyms, hospitals, airports, cruise ships and many other public places expose the public to all types of viruses. On February 23, 2010, a cruise ship company said that a gastrointestinal illness outbreak has sickened nearly 450 passengers on a U.S. cruise ship, according to a recent CNN news report.

The Celebrity Cruises ship Mercury departed Charleston, South Carolina, February 15 and headed for the eastern Caribbean, according to a Celebrity Cruises statement. On the way, 419 of the 1,838 passengers fell ill, along with 27 of the 849 crew members, the cruise line said. The number of affected passengers increased from the 353 reported the day before.

Their symptoms included upset stomach, vomiting and diarrhea, Celebrity Cruises spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said. Guests who were in isolation while ill will receive compensation, she said. The sickened passengers and crew have been administered over-the-counter medicine and are responding well, Celebrity Cruises said.

The ship’s medical facility first started treating guests on February 21, 2010, Martinez said, and by Monday, hundreds of others were sick, too, Celebrity Cruises reported.

To control the outbreak, the crew has stepped up cleaning of the ship, which is advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness occurs.

Norovirus commonly causes viral gastrointestinal illness outbreaks on cruise ships, the CDC says. It can spread from contact with contaminated food or drink, by touching objects infected by people who are already sickened, or through close contact with people who are infected, according to the CDC.

To date, three gastrointestinal illness outbreaks have occurred on cruise ships that docked at   U.S. ports, according to the CDC. Norovirus was the cause of two outbreaks on the Mercury in 2009, the CDC reported. The outbreaks reported and investigated by the CDC infected at least 3 percent of the people onboard the cruises carrying at least 100 passengers for anytime between three days to three weeks.