Visitors are being turned away from hospitals acrossBritain as the deadly norovirus, commonly known as the "winter vomitingbug", is believed to have affected 750,000 people.
The Birmingham City Hospital has asked visitors to stay away after closing fourwards while the Maidstone Hospital in Kent has shut three wards to newadmissions and banned visitors from all wards, Sky News reported.
The George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton is also turning away visitors. Fivehospitals in Wales are also closed to people other than patients.
The number of cases affected by the winter vomiting bug is up 72 percent thanduring the same period last year, the Health Protection Agency said.
This season, 2,630 cases have been recorded, while last year, there were just1,533 cases.
The agency said that for every confirmed case there are likely to be a further288 unreported sufferers.
This means 750,000 people could have been struck down by the bug acrossBritain.
Norovirus is a highly contagious bug and spreads quickly in close environmentssuch as hospitals and schools.
The symptoms include vomiting and diarrhoea, which usually last for around twodays.
A cruise ship Azura, docked in Southampton and carrying 3,059 passengers, hasalso reported an outbreak of the virus on board.
The ship was on an 11-night cruise. Officials confirmed there were 10 cases andthose passengers had been confined to their cabins to prevent its spread.
Around 300 people on another ship Oriana were also hit by the virus during acruise.