Australian health authorities say they are working with Indian Pacific operator to control norovirus outbreak

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

A transcontinental Australian tourist train has seen more than 100 passengers in the past month contract gastro while travelling the 4,352km journey between Sydney and Perth.

Authorities said at least two people from the Indian Pacific train had presented to hospital emergency departments with symptoms suspected to be the short-lived norovirus since the beginning of the outbreak in mid-September.

“Norovirus is one of these agents that’s actually very hard to control once it’s in the environment,” said Louise Flood, director of South Australian Health’s communicable disease control branch (CDCB).

“It’s a short-lived gastroenteritis, with vomiting and diarrhoea as the main symptoms.”

Flood said the SA health department and CDCB had been working with the train operator, Great Southern Rail, to control the outbreak, which had its most recent case last week.

“Things like steam-cleaning the carpets and cleaning all the surfaces can help control the outbreak, as well as people who are sick being isolated. So when people get unwell making sure they stay in their room to stop spreading it to other people.”

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The company has also removed and cleaned curtains as needed, provided alcohol hand gels, and even removed some carriages. The train has completed at least three journeys since without incident.

Flood said the outbreak was connected to “mainly one section of the train”.

The Indian Pacific journey runs between Sydney on Australia’s Pacific coast to Perth on its Indian Ocean coastline. Holiday packages go up to more than $10,000 per person, stopping in towns along the southern Australian route.

“Some [infected passengers] have been getting off the train and some have just continued on the train being in isolation,” Flood said.

“The people on the Indian Pacific train tend to be older because that’s just the clientele,” Flood said. “So when you get unwell when you’re older, it can affect you a little more than it does in a young, healthy person.”

Lesley Thompson, 80, told the Sydney Morning Herald she boarded the train in Sydney on 11 September and fell ill the following day when they stopped over in Hahndorf, South Australia.

“I was throwing up everywhere,” Thompson said. “It was vile.”

Thompson was taken to hospital by ambulance with an irregular heartbeat, the report said, but she counted herself lucky.

“Our next stop was Cook on the Nullarbor Plain with a population of four.”

Norovirus is highly contagious and health monitors report around a dozen outbreaks on cruise ships each year.

In 2015 a cruise ship docked in Sydney with more than 180 passengers who had contracted the virus, and two other outbreaks in the US saw more than 200 cruise ship passengers struck down with it.

Great Southern Rail told News Corp it had taken “every available measure” to control the norovirus outbreak, and it would continue to monitor and liaise with the health department.

“The health and wellbeing of our guests is paramount and we have acted quickly to respond to this situation, including communicating with all those boarding our recent journeys.”