In the spring of 2022, there was a big outbreak of typhoid fever on an old cruise ship in the Netherlands that had been turned into emergency housing. A report from scientists revealed that the cause was sewage leaking out of a cracked wall between freshwater and dirty water tanks. Those affected – 72 asylum seekers and staff – all got better after being treated.
There was a really bad outbreak of typhoid on a boat in the Netherlands this year. At the upcoming European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2023), experts are going to explain why it happened.
The Liberty Ann, an old cruise ship which is being used for emergency housing for asylum seekers, had an outbreak with 72 confirmed cases of typhoid in spring 2022.
Experts from the Municipal Health Service Kennemerland, the Regional Public Health Laboratory Kennemerland and other investigating teams found that the outbreak was due to water stored in the ship.
Dr. Anne de Vries, one of the people investigating the situation, said that there was a common wall separating the freshwater and wastewater tanks which had tons of tiny holes in it. Those holes then let bad bacteria from sewage, which is called Salmonella typhi (S.typhi), to get into drinking water and food, causing typhoid fever.
Typhoid is an infection caused by bad germs in food or water. It can make you really sick, with a high fever, headache, pain in your abdomen, and issues with pooping. But if you get to the doctor soon after getting infected, it is usually not too severe and can be cured.
On April 6th 2022, the health department of Kennemerland got news that many people on Liberty Ann were having fevers and tummy aches.
When typhoid fever was discovered, special steps were taken to stop it from spreading any further. People were provided with bottles of water. Cooking on the ship stopped and all of the asylum seekers moved away to other places. Out of the 349 people who may have been exposed, 72 cases of typhoid got detected. This happened between April 7th and May 24th; 50 cases were among asylum seekers while 20 were in staff members.
All of the people who got sick were adults. Every person on the ship and almost everyone working there were men.
25 people had to go to the hospital, but they all got better with treatment.
The Municipal Health Service came to the ship six times to try and figure out what had caused people to get sick. So, they asked everyone on the ship – both asylum seekers and staff – questions about what food and water they’d been drinking, and took samples of their blood and poop. It turned out that those who had eaten or drunk things on the ship were more likely to have caught typhoid.
Tests on a bacteria called S. typhi found in the blood and feces of people affected by the outbreak showed they all had the same type. That suggests everyone was infected from one source.
The same S. typhi was later discovered in a sewerage tank, which shared a really worn-out wall with an another tank filled with a different kind of bacteria called Salmonella.
The authors studying this problem came to the conclusion that an explosion of typhoid fever in the Netherlands resulted from dirty water containing S. typhi leaking into a fresh water tank.
It’s important to make sure the water on board ships is safe and clean. To ensure that, tanks, pipes and other equipment used to store it must be checked and kept in good shape regularly.
Investigating the Spread of Disease
A large group of people who were seeking asylum were put on a special boat trip in the Netherlands. Sadly, this resulted in an outbreak of typhoid fever. Scientists from China did investigations about coronavirus and bird flu viruses to see how they spread. Their findings showed where they happened and made suggestions for the future.
1. 2006- 2019: A look at a sickness called dengue virus in Nepal
2. In China, there is an illness with serious fever and low blood platelets arising from repeated infections – a case report
3. 2022 edition: Tips on how to properly use medication for illnesses related to blood supply
4. For people affected by eye problems due to diabetes, anti-vascular endothelium growth factor could be used in surgeries as well.
1. How land use affects parasitic infections: a study that looks at how irrigation and growing certain crops could influence schistosome infection in certain areas.
2. Understanding the work of Chinese Disease Control Center’s Emergency Operations Center during the H7N9 outbreak: a case study.
3. What causes schistosomiasis around Tiko Health District, a city in Cameroon? An examination of different factors in the area that could lead to this infection.
