YORK health chiefs are urging people to get their flu jab as a number of elderly people suffering from flu-like symptoms have begun to attend hospital - an early warning of winter pressures on the wards.

One ward at York Hospital has also been closed to admissions after nine patients and four members of staff were struck by Norovirus, the new name for Norwalk and Norwalk-type viruses that causes diarrhoea and vomiting.

The ward is expected to be reopened by the end of the week, but visitors to the hospital are being urged to stay away for 48 hours if they have displayed any symptoms.

Jim Easton, chief executive of York Hospitals NHS Trust, said it was vital that elderly and vulnerable people took up the vaccination against the potentially life-threatening influenza virus, which often results in hospital treatment.

The message was reiterated by Dr Louise Coole, consultant in communicable diseases at North Yorkshire Health Protection Unit, although she said there was no evidence of influenza in the county yet.

Dr Coole said: "At the moment we are not aware of any influenza activity but obviously there's a lot of flu-like illnesses that start circulating around this time of year.

"We would expect to see confirmed cases of influenza later in the winter, peaking around December.

"The flu vaccine is very good at protecting against influenza but it doesn't prevent you getting other infections, some of which have very similar symptoms, although they are not usually as severe.

"Influenza makes people feel quite poorly and often causes a lot of people to be admitted to hospital over the winter."

A major campaign was launched earlier this month to encourage people over the age of 65, and younger vulnerable people, to receive their flu jab.

Last year, across the Selby and York PCT area, 75 per cent of people over 65 years of age were vaccinated and doctors in the district are keen for this figure to increase further.

A public awareness Norovirus campaign was also launched this month to prevent people unwittingly spreading the infection.

The airborne virus, which causes unpleasant symptoms for 24 hours in an otherwise healthy person, can have a devastating effect on the running of a hospital if staff and patients contract the infection.

Updated: 11:29 Wednesday, October 29, 2003