which can kill severely ill people was discovered last week.

An infection control expert at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital said the condition posed a threat to seriously ill patients. But she refused to say if any of the patients were likely to die or exactly how many patients or staff members have the infection.

She would only say that there were no more than five cases.

A patient was found to have the Multi-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) bug in Memorial ward last Monday.

Screening of staff and patients followed and the ward was closed on Friday.

The spokeswoman said patients with the infection had been isolated while staff members were taken off work and will only return when they have tested negative three times.

The spokeswoman said: "It's easy to treat if it's caught in time, it depends on your resistance.

"If your resistance is only limited you can succumb to it, you can die.'' MRSA is resistant to all but two forms of antibiotics - it's does not exhibit symptoms in healthy patients but can slow down the healing of wounds.

The spokeswoman said: "We are getting all the results back and things are starting to resume as normal. It's a matter of identifying who's got it.

"When you've identified it you can deal with it.'' The bug can be treated by infected patients bathing in solution while ointment and medicine can also kill it off.

But the spokeswoman said the hospital was still unsure where the bug came from.

She said: "The source patient had a condition which could be described as airborne.

"People who were exposed to it could have inhaled it.'' Further tests are being done but no more positive results are expected and the ward is set to reopen within the next couple of days.