The winter vomiting bug causes hospitals in the west and midlands to cancel all non emergency admissions.
The main concern at the hospitals affected is to prevent the spread of the virus which transmits easily from person to person.
The Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar and the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar are deferring all elective admissions in a bid to reduce the risks to patients and staff and to elderly people in the two regions.
Visitors arriving at the 200 bed Mayo General Hospital this afternoon were being alerted to the outbreak of a gastroenteritis like virus which has hit the county.
Five patients at the hospital have contracted the stomach bug and all planned admissions have been cancelled for the next three days to prevent its spread. The virus has also struck the nearby Sacred Heart Hospital where 26 patients and 10 staff have contracted the SRVS Virus. Visiting at both hospitals is now being discouraged.
Dr Cathal Kearney of the Western Health Board says that people who contract the virus can suffer from vomiting and diahorrea for one or two days and then recover quite quickly without any long term adverse effects. His concern is that,
This particular virus has an ability to spread very readily from person to person.
There is no particular treatment for the virus other than to drink plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration.
The virus is also causing problems at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Mullingar. Thirty patients and staff at the hospital have been affected. All elective admissions have now been cancelled.
Doctors insist that this winter vomiting bug isn't a serious illness but there is concern at the effects it can have on elderly people.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 5 February 2002. The reporter is Jim Fahy.
