Mystery outbreak affects passengers aborad Royal Caribbean cruise
The outbreak occurred after the ship departed from Los Angeles on July 4, with the vessel docking in Puerto Vallarta on July 8 and returning to Los Angeles on July 11.
Passengers who reported illness were isolated, and the ship underwent a thorough cleaning, with stool samples also collected for testing.
The CDC has not yet determined the cause of the outbreak, though vomiting and diarrhea are common signs of norovirus.
This incident follows a similar outbreak last September, when 180 people became sick on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas during an Alaska cruise.
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Times
6 hours ago
- Times
Casa Chablé hotel review: romantic barefoot escapism in Mexico
Enveloped by coconut palms, Casa Chablé sits on a skinny jungly peninsula of the protected Sian Ka'an biosphere reserve, sandwiched between the beautiful turquoise Caribbean Sea and an inland chalky green lagoon where wildlife roams. It's reached by an exciting (but expensive) 35-minute boat ride or a 90-minute car trip from Tulum, and the location on a wild stretch of beach is nothing short of spectacular. Smart bungalows dot the softest of sand and are backed by a restaurant, a beautiful underutilised lobby designed by the Mexican architect Paulina Morán and a small, oblong pool. Locals, who know the lay of the land intricately, lead boat trips to spot jumping dolphins, surfacing manatees, marine turtles, rays and flamingoes, and glimpsing bioluminescence in the lagoon under the stars is a particularly unmissable experience. The service is excellent, thanks to a fabulous team of attentive staff that tend to your every need. This article contains affiliate links that will earn us revenue Score 10/10Casa Chablé's light eco-footprint accommodates just five guest rooms and five thatched wooden bungalows on the sand. The pick of the bunch is the master beachfront bungalow Hunab Ku — translated as 'the beginning of everything' — which stands apart from the other rooms and gives the impression of being cocooned by its own private beach. A large terrace with an alfresco shower is perfect for early morning coffee and croissants, delivered to your door, as well as watching the sunrise and the raccoon-like coatis that mooch about the sand. The spacious bungalows, designed in natural tones of biscuit, cream and cocoa, and accented with Yucatec-made bedspreads, come with their own hammocks, fat-cushioned sunloungers and tipis. The rooms, found in the main building behind the lobby, are equally attractive although smaller and while all bathrooms have showers, only some come with tubs. The hotel's eco focus is genuinely impressive: 1,848 solar panels generate 60 per cent of the property's energy needs and its own water plant recycles and purifies the supply by reverse osmosis. Score 10/10Meals are served by the delightful staff in K'úum, a handsome open-sided restaurant on stilts overlooking the palm-dotted sand and ocean. The menu riffs on regional Mexican cuisine: examples include Yucatec cochinita pibil (slow-roasted marinated pork) and local sausage with a reduction of black beans; tacos al pastor, hailing from Puebla, served with octopus rather than the traditional pork; and Oaxacan tlayuda, a toasted tortilla dish, covered in refried beans, avocado, Oaxaca cheese, pepian (rich Guatemalan meat stew), roast cauliflower and a delicious roasted asparagus purée. You'll need a week to savour everything from the menus. Breakfasts of eggs, fabulous chilaquiles (fried tortillas covered with a variety of ingredients), acai bowls or pancakes are full of flavour. And be sure to take one of your dinners at a lantern-lit romantic spot set up on the beach, or at a pop-up with candlelight arranged amid the hotel's extensive orchard and vegetable garden. Dishes might include tuna with ponzu sauce, coriander and amaranth tostadas, and the most citrusy of ceviches. Elsewhere, expect moreish cocktails like margarita de Jamaica, made with Cointreau, lemon juice, orange and strawberries. • Best hotels in Tulum• Cancun v Tulum: which is better? Score 9/10A small gym and a spa are found tucked away near the hotel lobby where great massages are as rhythmic as the sound of the waves you can hear. On offer too are sound-healing experiences and a shamanic ceremony at the boat dock for all guests as the sun sets (it's here that you can spy bioluminescence at night under the stars). You can walk or bike along the main peninsula track to spot small Mayan ruins and some of the 300 species of birds found here, and the hotel offers a huge array of complimentary wellness and wildlife tours including snorkelling and kayaking. Score 9/10For lovers of wild beaches, the natural world and dark skies, this is a small slice of heaven on earth in a Unesco-protected nature reserve. Those looking for a Tulum party scene may not feel entirely comfortable here. The local boat trip is a must. Price B&B doubles from £550Restaurant mains from £13Family-friendly YAccessible N Claire Boobbyer was a guest of Casa Chablé ( • Best beaches in Tulum and Cancun• Discover our full guide to Mexico
Scottish Sun
14 hours ago
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I tried the Middle Eastern cruise trip with desert stays, five-star dining and wildlife safaris
The lifts at Burj Khalifa — naturally the fastest in the world — speed up to the observation deck on the 125th floor in just 60 seconds CELESTYAL CRUISE I tried the Middle Eastern cruise trip with desert stays, five-star dining and wildlife safaris Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) DUBAI brags of having the biggest, longest and highest of everything – but the widest highway in the world? Really? Absolutely, says Ali, the most excitable guide in the world — but only if he is talking about his own country. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 6 Enjoy the high life in ultra-modern Abu Dhabi 6 Relax with a sea view from the onboard pool 6 Take in a wildlife safari 'We have no taxes, VAT is five per cent, the government is rich, we are rich, we have the richest country in the world,' he effuses. We are going to the Dubai Mall, the world's biggest shopping centre, and the towering Burj Khalifa, the tallest (of course) building in the world, soaring 828 metres in the air. That's almost three times the height of London's Shard. The lifts at Burj Khalifa — naturally, the fastest in the world — speed up to the observation deck on the 125th floor in just 60 seconds. What Ali fails to tell us is that getting to the lifts means enduring the slowest queue in the world. It took us a frustrating 90 minutes of shuffling and waiting from one queue to another but, once at the top, you're in selfie heaven. We're in Dubai with Celestyal, a charmingly Greek cruise line that spends summers in Greece and Croatia and winters hobnobbing with the rich and, well, really rich, on one-week voyages around the Arabian Gulf. The cruise starts in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where money can buy you everything — including a room in a super-luxury hotel that towers into the sky and is shaped like a crescent. Our ship, Celestyal Journey, isn't quite so swanky, but way better value, with a week from just £539pp — not much more than a night in the fancy Doha hotel. But where that doesn't even get breakfast thrown in, on board our ship three meals a day are included. So is wifi (and you can also splash out on dinner in the speciality Asian or steak restaurant, which come at an extra charge). Martin Lewis warns about strict passport rule that could see you board your flight - only to get sent home on arrival If you fancy staying in a fab Grand Dream Suite, one of the fanciest staterooms on board, which comes with spacious living area, a sofa bed (on top of the large double bed) and balcony, it's £1,380pp more. It also comes with perks, including free access to an exclusive restaurant and the spa's thermal suite as well as priority check-in. If you can tear yourself away from the room, there's a pool upstairs and numerous bars downstairs with non-stop live music every evening. Our favourite is Spirits & Ales, where barman JD and his team always have smiles on their faces and tricks up their sleeves. Literally. They not only pull a mean pint, but also wow us with a close-up magic show one evening. From Doha we cruise to Dubai, where we're staying overnight so we can go 4x4-ing in the desert on one of several shore excursions offered by the cruise line. It's a thrilling rollercoaster of a ride as our driver revs up, down and along the shifting sands at angles you don't want to think about. Liberal beach culture 'I've never tipped one over,' our driver promises as the jeep suddenly tilts sideways, resulting in a shower of sand. The scary stuff over, we're then wined and dined under the stars, our mouths feasting on local dishes while our eyes feast on entertainment in the form of a fire juggler and whirling dervishes who go into a trance-like state and twirl around and around for at least ten minutes without falling over. It's one of those don't-try-this-at-home moments. And very different to our next stop, Sir Bani Yas Island, a wildlife reserve off the shores of Abu Dhabi. Just 50 years ago, the island was deserted. But today it is home to millions of plants and trees, thousands of animals and 300 rangers to look after it all. It is also a mecca for cruise ships sailing the Arabian Gulf for the more liberal beach culture than on the mainland — bikinis! — and open-truck wildlife safaris. 6 Entertainment includes impressive magic shows 6 Souq up the atmosphere at a traditional market in Bahrain Credit: Getty 6 Celestyal offers a seven-night Desert Days cruise round-trip from Doha and visiting Dubai, Sir Bani Yas Island, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain Credit: supplied It's not up there with Africa (no lions, tigers or buffalo) but there are two cheetahs, loads of deer, gazelles, Barbary sheep from Morocco, cranes from Uganda, African Oryx and even 41 giraffes. It's a welcome respite after the excesses of Dubai, but things ramp up a gear again — literally — in Abu Dhabi with trips to Yas Marina F1 circuit, theme parks and SeaWorld. Or you can go for a cultural overdose at the Louvre (Abu Dhabi has its own version of the French museum) or the shiny Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, which glows spectacularly white in the sun. In Bahrain, our final stop before we return to Doha, a tour whisks us around a souk and fort, but my abiding memory is the mezze served for lunch. Plates of hummus, pitta bread, salad, kebabs, grilled sausages, chicken and more that just keep on coming. As does the wine. It's definitely the best mezze in the world (but shhh — don't tell Dubai).
The Guardian
14 hours ago
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A professor had a $2.4m grant to study Black maternal health. Then Trump was elected
Jaime Slaughter-Acey was in a state of shock and anger when she learned that her National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study on birth outcomes in Black families was cancelled this spring. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill associate professor in epidemiology said that she felt like 'the rug was pulled out from under us' when the university called her to share the news. The termination notice said that the study no longer met the agency's priorities and didn't promise to increase life expectancy. 'It was heartbreaking,' Slaughter-Acey told the Guardian, 'and honestly, infuriating given the high rates of maternal and infant mortality in this country.' The cancellation came as the Trump administration terminated 1,902 NIH grants totalling more than $4.4bn between his January inauguration and the end of July, according to Grant Witness data. NIH followed guidance from the so-called 'department of government efficiency' (Doge) and Trump's executive orders to cut costs. Additionally, in April, the Trump administration let go of a majority of the staff at the federal Division of Reproductive Health, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) office that collects data on maternal experiences. It also surveils pregnancy-related deaths in an effort to reduce infant mortality and improve health outcomes for mothers and their children. Slaughter-Acey's several-year study funded by a more than $2.4m NIH grant aimed to look at how social and biological factors affect outcomes for more than 500 Black women in Detroit. The grant termination froze the team's more than $581,000 remaining funding. Through blood samples and surveys of Black mothers and grandmothers, Slaughter-Acey and her team aimed to understand if social environments accelerated how bodies physiologically age, otherwise known as biological ageing, which may lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes for Black women. She said that the research is 'designed to tell us how social environment and the pathways that social environment affects us physiologically, to then increase this risk that Black moms and Black babies have with respect to pregnancy'. While most studies that look at racism only focus on one point in time, Slaughter-Acey said that hers was 'the first study to comprehensively examine how exposure to structural, cultural and intergenerational racism throughout a Black woman's life impacts her epigenome and her child's birth outcomes.' It was also innovative because Black women are underrepresented in epigenomic studies, a field where researchers look at how environment and behavior impacts a person's genes, said Slaughter-Acey, due to medical mistrust and experiences of racism in the healthcare system. The NIH-grant cancellation in late March followed the release of data from the CDC revealing that Black women were the only race or ethnic group who didn't experience a decline in deaths from pregnancy related causes in 2023. Out of every 100,000 live births, 50.3 Black mothers died, compared with 14.5 deaths for white people, 12.4 for Latinos and 10.7 for Asians. The NIH didn't respond to a request for comment. Slaughter-Acey fears that the grant-cancellation signals that research and efforts to close the maternal death gap are at risk of coming to a standstill under the Trump administration. Other NIH grants that have been terminated include one that looked at prenatal exposure to public drinking water contaminants and a study that analyzed why women of color die of cervical cancer at a disproportionate rate. On Thursday, the Trump administration froze UCLA research grants from federal agencies including NIH and the National Science Foundation totaling nearly $200m, accusing the university of antisemitism and discrimination in admissions. 'It's part of a larger pattern of political interference in science that puts the health of all people at risk, especially vulnerable populations,' Slaughter-Acey said. The study 'is about understanding the root causes of poor maternal and infant health in this country – something that affects all of us, regardless of race or background. When science is silenced, communities suffer'. Still, Slaughter-Acey and her team are hopeful that the study will continue for years to come as they search for alternative funding sources, including donations. On Slaughter-Acey's LinkedIn page, she called upon her followers to donate to the University of North Carolina Department of Epidemiology, and to include a note that they support Slaughter-Acey's work, or the name of the study, 'LIFE-2'. 'The voices of these 500 plus moms and babies should not die or be silenced with the termination of this grant,' she told the Guardian. The pull in funding 'is an example of erasure of black mothers and infants'. There has been some temporary relief. This June, Slaughter-Acey's team received short-term funding from Michigan State University to continue their study over the next few months. Now nearly 600 moms are enrolled in the study, but without additional funding, it will probably pause again at the end of the year. The nearly 600 women who have joined the study were recruited from local delivery hospitals in Detroit, Michigan, in the day or two following childbirth. Slaughter-Acey chose Detroit since she completed her post-doc at the University of Michigan, where she researched the influence of social environments on Black maternal health. Participants for her study, which began in 2021, completed a post-delivery survey where they answered questions about social determinants of health including housing and food insecurity throughout their life. Along with collecting their blood through a finger prick, researchers also collect the babies' and mothers' birth certificates from the state health department as well as the mothers' blood that was collected at birth and stored in a biobank. About 20% of the babies' grandmothers are also participating in the study by answering questions about the social environment during their pregnancies and their daughters' early childhoods. The multilevel data collection allows the researchers to create 'this robust and triangulated dataset that includes social determinants of health, like information about food and housing insecurity', Slaughter-Acey said. 'It's capturing a more holistic view than what's been captured previously for moms in terms of maternal and infant health.' After the moms are discharged from the hospital, the researchers also follow up with a majority of the women eight to 10 weeks after they give birth to ask about their adjustment to motherhood, whether they've received support for breastfeeding, a postpartum healthcare visit, or if they've experienced discrimination from their healthcare providers. At the time of the funding termination, the research team was in the process of creating a 12-month postpartum checkup with the mothers to help define maternal thriving. 'When we are talking about maternal morbidity and mortality, we're defining maternal health by the absence of disease, by mom not dying, by mom not having a severe morbidity,' Slaughter-Acey said. 'But the field in general does not have a good understanding or even definition of, 'what does maternal thriving look like?' And we need to get past this conversation of maternal survival, and move to thriving.' More than two years of funding remained in the NIH grant, during which her team had planned to recruit more mothers and to conduct data analysis. They also aimed to create a website for participants to read about the study's findings. But the data that the team has analyzed thus far has revealed that mothers with a lot of adverse childhood experiences were more likely to have conflict with the father of the child. The finding, Slaughter-Acey said, 'underscores the importance of understanding how the social environment influences relationship dynamics and maybe perinatal outcomes. We know that social support is key during pregnancy'. The team also found that one in five study participants experienced housing insecurity during their pregnancy, a factor that she said greatly affects perinatal health and is rarely documented in hospital records. They also created a tool to measure racial microagressions from healthcare providers and in the mothers' everyday life, since many in the cohort said that they experienced harmful interactions that Slaughter-Acey said may explain why they felt unsupported. For Slaughter-Acey, the study findings 'highlight how structural inequities – across housing, healthcare, and personal history – intersect to shape maternal and infant outcomes. And they underscore why we need research that listens to and reflects the full complexity of Black women's experiences.' NIH research funding will probably continue to take a hit under the Trump administration. A new Trump administration policy requiring that multiyear grants be paid upfront lowers the odds that a research proposal will be accepted. As a result, university labs may close.
