A number of hospitals have placed restrictions on visitors and have closed wards due to outbreaks of the winter vomiting bug. Some 76 patients and 10 staff have been infected by the bug. Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent, reports.
At Dublin's Beaumont Hospital five wards are affected and some 34 patients are displaying symptoms, a spokesman said.
Galway's University College Hospital said two wards have been closed to new admissions in an attempt to contain the virus. The Western Health Board, which runs the hospital, confirmed that 20 patients currently have the illness.
"An outbreak-control committee has been formed and hospital management and staff have put in place measures to reduce, in so far as possible, risk of the virus spreading to other patients and to other areas/departments within Galway Regional Hospitals," it added.
The health board appealed to the public not to visit the hospital unless it was essential and to those in the community with symptoms of the bug including diarrhoea and vomiting to visit their GP rather than A&E. The Mid Western Health Board said it had also imposed visiting restrictions at its main hospital in Limerick, where six patients have symptoms of the bug.
The South Eastern Health Board confirmed 16 patients and up to 10 staff had been affected at a hospital for the elderly in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny. The hospital, St Columba's, has been closed to visitors and new admissions, a spokeswoman confirmed.
Earlier this week the Eastern Regional Health Authority said it had also received reports of a number of students at Clongowes Wood College in Co Kildare exhibiting symptoms of the bug.