A HOSPITAL stroke unit has been sealed off after being attacked by a fresh wave of a potentially killer bug.

The outbreak hit five patients on the ward at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire and was so severe a specialist company had to be brought in to treat the area with a powerful chemical.

Cases of the C-diff infection have also been recorded on three other wards at the same hospital which will also need to be deep-cleaned.

They brought the total number of sufferers to 28 for June, compared to 20 in May, and officials have now re-opened part of an isolation ward to stem the increase in the infection.

It has also prompted a top-level review of the trust's policies for containing C-diff.

The level of the infection was revealed at a hospital board meeting yesterday.

Hospital chairman Mike Brereton said: "Despite these figures, we are sticking by our overall target of eradicating all avoidable infections by the time we move into our new hospital in two years' time."

The stroke unit on ward nine has one of the best survival rates in the country, but was shut for nearly a week after the outbreak.

Patients had to be transferred to ward six while experts from Hampshire-based company Bioquell used hydrogen peroxide to blitz the bug.

The other affected wards are 84, 86 and 123 where routine cleaning has been now stepped up and deep cleaning is being planned.

In the last financial year there were 276 cases of C-diff at the hospital, fewer than the Government-issued maximum of 348 incidents.

As numbers of cases fell last year hospital bosses felt it was safe enough to close its isolation ward, 122, and revert to a previous practice of nursing patients with the bug inside rooms of stricken wards.

But they have now reopened a four-bed bay and two single rooms on 122, because cases rose again resulting in the hospital being criticised by North Staffordshire Coroner Ian Smith who revealed C-diff was involved in a rising number of deaths he investigated.

Chief Nurse Liz Rix, pictured, said: "We are getting a high level of C-difficile cases with a number of wards identified as having clusters of two or more cases.

"Reducing this continues to be a high priority as we ensure policy, process and practice standards are maintained.

"We are to look at C-Diff across the whole organisation and report back to the trust executive."

A report from the Hartshill complex's infection control team showed two patients also fell ill with the other main superbug, MRSA, last month.

A clinical investigation concluded that in one of the cases an elderly man caught it from medical equipment used in a heart procedure.