Officials at St Mary’s in Newport report today that a number of patients at the hospital have developed symptoms associated with Norovirus (viral gastroenetritis).
In order to keep the virus at bay, the Chief Nurse is requesting that any members of the public displaying symptoms associated with the virus remain away from the hospital unless in an emergency.
The affected patients have been isolated and affected have been closed to new patients.
Routine admissions to St. Mary’s are continuing as normal and visiting times will be between 2-3pm and 7-8pm.
Carol Alstrom, Chief Nurse and Director of Infection Prevention & Control said: “We had an episode of Norovirus in December and thanks to the co-operation of the public and our staff we managed to contain the outbreak. Since the beginning of December we have restricted visiting to St. Mary’s to try and reduce the risk of infection being brought into the Hospital.
Carol continued: “What is vitally important is for people to keep away from the hospital if they have been unwell recently, especially if they have had vomiting or diarrhoea in the past 48 hours. Gastroenteritis is highly infectious. I would discourage parents from bringing young children in to the hospital to visit friends and family at this time.”
Dr Paul Bingham, Consultant in Communicable Disease Control, said: “If people in the community begin to show signs of infection the first step is to drink plenty of fluids. The very young and elderly should take extra care as dehydration is more common in these age groups,” he added.
“If the symptoms persist, they should telephone either NHS Direct (0845 46 47), their own GP Surgery or for out of hours advice, contact the Island Health Line (0845 6031 007). They can also find further details of symptoms on the NHS Direct website.
Image: Fimb under CC BY-SA 2.0
