By Conor Sharkey

A pensioner in a local nursing home remains in isolation this week, after being found to have contracted the hospital bug Clostridium Diifficile (C Diff), the Strabane Chronicle can today reveal.

Staff at Melmount Manor have been working to contain the illness since the male patient was diagnosed in early September. The man is believed to have contracted the bug during one of a range of hospital visits over the past few recent weeks.

C Diff infections are normally found in a healthcare environment and are usually caused by antibiotics. Extremely contagious, C Diff symptoms can include severe diarrhoea and fever and while in most cases it causes only relatively mild illness, occasionally and in particularly in elderly patients, it may result in serious illness. The number of deaths linked to the illness has soared in recent years.

Speaking on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Melmount Manor's parent company, the Southern Cross Healthcare Group confirmed the outbreak, adding that tests were being carried out to make sure it had not spread. He added that while the discovery of the bug was being taken seriously, there was no need for major concern at present.

The spokesperson explained that steps to control the outbreak had been complicated by the fact that the patient has to travel five days per week to hospital for dialysis.

He added however: "There is a fairly standard procedure of isolation and so far it seems to be working.

"There are 78 other residents in Melmount Manor and none of them appear to have contracted it.

"The patient is on a course of drugs and we are now awaiting test results to see if it is under control. Staff are doing all they can and there is no great anxiety at this time," he said.

Staff at Melmount Manor refused to comment on the C Diff discovery when contacted yesterday.

No-one from the Western Health Trust was available for comment at the time of going to press.