The Western Health Board has issued an appeal for people not to visit the County Hospital in Castlebar, County Mayo, due to an infectious bug.
Sixteen patients are being treated for the Winter Vomiting Bug and it is feared that as many as twenty-four thousand people may carry the bug in County Mayo.
The incubation period is 48-hours and the stomach virus, which has effects similar to gastroenteritis, is thought to affect as many as 1,500 people for every person treated in hospital.
The Western Health Board’s director of Acute Services, Dr Mary Hynes, said new cases were occurring every day and that it would be another two or three days before an accurate prediction could be made on how long the bug will last.
All non-emergency admissions and surgery have been cancelled until the middle of next week.
