How do cruise lines maintain healthy and disease free ships?

Cruise ship’s outbreak of diseases has decreased dramatically since the formation of the Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) in 1975 by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). This program assists cruise ships to develop and implement environmental health programs. It also conducts regular inspections of ships.

Every ship that stops at US ports or have a foreign itinerary must undergo two un-announced inspections each year. The scores of the inspection are on a 100 point scale and ships need to score 86 to be certified. If score is below 86, the ship has between 30 – 45 days for re-inspection to bring their scores up.

The inspection report is known as the green sheet and can be found on the following site: http://wwwn.cdc.gov/vsp/InspectionQueryTool/Forms/InspectionSearch.aspx
It is also possible to look up a ship’s sanitation history by searching the CDC database of most recent inspection at the same site above.