THE NUMBER OF recorded outbreaks of the winter vomiting bug in the first week of 2012 is more than double the rate of outbreaks in the first week of last year, a new report has found.

A report from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, obtained by the Medical Independent, found that there were 92 cases of the illness recorded in the first week of this year – compared to just 37 a year ago.

The outbreaks were confirmed to community hospital and long-stay units in HSE East, where there were 62 cases, and in similar facilities in HSE West where another 30 patients took ill.

The Medical Independent’s James Fogarty adds that 147 people had become ill in the last weeks of 2011 with the disease, with a residential hospital in the midlands seeing 63 patients infected.

There were five outbreaks from a “significant pathogen” in the first week of 2012.

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