Eighty patients and 60 staff at the Royal Berkshire Hospital have so far been infected.

Hospital management is attempting to contain the infection, by segregating affected people and closing four wards to admissions.

The Reading hospital is the latest to be affected by the virus - in September hospitals in Hampshire and Dorset suffered outbreaks.

Short staffed

Cases of the Norwalk virus were first detected a week ago in Reading and the numbers have continued to rise.

With so many staff members at the hospital ill, rotas have had to be re-organised and the accident and emergency department is short on staff.

Anyone visiting patients at the hospital is being asked to stay at home if they feel unwell to try to minimise spreading the infection any further.

The airborne virus causes sickness and diarrhoea for between 24 and 48 hours but is not life-threatening.