A WARD at Swindon's Great Western Hospital has been closed after an outbreak of diarrhoea and vomiting which affected 35 people.

Patients on Jupiter ward first started showing symptoms of the Norwalk virus on Tuesday.

Another bug, clostridium difficile, was also found on the ward last week.

Twenty patients and 15 members of staff have been infected with one or other of the viruses. Six patients are still suffering from the symptoms.

Hospital spokesman Chris Birdsall said the ward was under strict isolation to stop infection spreading.

"The infection control procedure was implemented and we isolated patients who showed symptoms.

"We restricted the number of people who went into the ward, such as visitors, to reduce the risk of further infection

"No new patients were admitted to the ward.

"Any staff who showed symptoms were sent home and not allowed to come back until they were clear of them.

"There was a strict use of alcohol gel that kills off all germs."

Mr Birdsall says the virus was brought into the hospital by an unsuspecting visitor.

"If you think about the number of people coming into the hospital then it is inevitable that we have to deal with something like this from time to time," he said.

"The ward will re-open once all the patients are clear of the bug.

"They are short-lived infections, and, under normal circumstances, they are more unpleasant than dangerous.

"Generally speaking, the bugs are not life-threatening."

Scottish hospitals suffered an outbreak of the Norwalk virus in January 2002.

There is no treatment for the virus and patients are advised to take lots of liquids and wait for the illness to pass.

Most people are affected for 24 to 60 hours and contagious for 48 hours. It can cause extreme fatigue as an after effect.

l A virus similar to Norwalk closed three wards at the Great Western Hospital in February last year.

The Saturn and Neptune medical wards and the Kingfisher trauma wards were closed for three weeks and about 100 patients and members of staff were affected.

Hospital infections experts said there was nothing that could be done to stop the virus being brought in and the only way to cope with the outbreak was to keep infected patients away from others and keep infected staff off work.

In January of the previous year Princess Margaret Hospital was also hit by a similar virus which two closed two wards. In August 2002 a gastroenteritis outbreak closed four wards at PMH.