Carnival Cruise Lines PR Victim of Flesh Eating Bacteria
Just when cruise line Carnival figured it their reputation could not possibly get worse, they’re hit with a class action lawsuit that claims their ships’ hot tubs are infested with flesh eating bacteria. The lawsuit contends passengers contracted the eerily horrible MRSA virus while traveling aboard the beleaguered cruise lines’s ships.
From passengers nearly losing their limbs and running up massive doctor bills, to the down and dirty of other passengers allegedly capturing the MRSA and staphylococcus aureus (above left) form one Carnival hot tub, attorneys and the PR people of Carnival have to be shaking their heads at this point.
At the defendant end of this latest litigation, Carnival has moved to dismiss the class action suit, but that motion was summarily denied by Federal Judge Cecilia Altonaga in Florida. e Travel Blackboard reported one plaintiff attorney contending the bacteria are not limited to one vessel. Several attorney, representing other plaintiffs, have filed this most recent suit having asked for others affected to come forward.
As for the bacteria, MRSA is a particularly nasty mutation of the staphylococcus aureus that is resident to anti-biotics, and thereby very difficult to treat. The bacteria causes an aggressive and sometimes debilitating staff infection. The images of these infections, are in fact, to grotesque to even show here.
Carnival Cruise Lines has suffered a rash of incidents over the last couple of years including ships losing power, and various mechanical failures. Meanwhile, USA Today reports the line is scheduling further massive overhauls of its older vessels in the wake of so many mechanical problems. One has to wonder a bit, what’s next in bad news from the cruise industry after this latest case.
