A STOMACH bug is affecting the hospital and some care homes.

The Hermanus Retirement Home in Rue Cohu, Castel, reopened its doors to visitors yesterday for the first time in five days.

Its manager, Gerald Lee, said the norovirus outbreak had affected four of the 29 residents, but that the home had since been given a clean bill of health.

‘It’s an airborne virus, so you have no idea how it arrives,’ he said.

‘If someone has visited somebody in another home or hospital which has it they can easily pass it on.’

The Health and Social Services Department’s infection control nurse, Elaine Burgess (pictured), said the hospital and some nursing and residential homes had been experiencing problems with diarrhoea and vomiting.

She could not say which homes.

‘The majority of norovirus outbreaks tend to last for approximately five to seven days in a nursing home or hospital environment,’ she said.

The norovirus was a group of viruses that were the most common cause of stomach bugs.