AN outbreak of salmonella poisoning is being investigated by health officials across the North-East and North Yorkshire.

Since August 9, there have been 63 cases of salmonella typhimurium PT204b reported across the area, with cases in Gateshead, County Durham, Darlington and Teesside.

Health officials say five people have been admitted to hospital having contracted salmonella, but none are thought to be seriously ill.

The investigation in the region comes on top of a separate one being carried out in other parts of the country looking at a widespread outbreak of a different strain of the illness.

County Durham and Darlington Health Authority is leading the investigation, with help from local authority officials and the Northern and Yorkshire branch of the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre.

Public health consultant Dr David Walker said: "We do know that this is a different strain of salmonella to that which caused an outbreak across the country in August.

"We are working with colleagues in other health authorities and local authorities to investigate the cases and to try to establish if there is a common cause.

"This involves interviewing a number of cases about what they ate prior to their illness and trying to establish if there are common factors. This work is on-going."

The outbreak of salmonella in the region has occurred despite regularly repeated warnings from health officials about a seasonal rise in the illness - blamed on barbecues and poorly cooked and prepared food.

Angus Nichol, acting director of the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, said: "Although levels of risk for food-borne illnesses are considerably less than they were in the past, because of improved food hygiene - and certainly most of the food processing that takes place in this country is very safe - where something goes wrong you have an ability for quite a large number of people to become infected very quickly because of the way food is distributed."

It is not known how long the investigation in the region will continue, but anyone who thinks they may have the illness has been warned to stay away from work or school until it has cleared up.

Dr Walker said: "People with diarrhoea should not prepare food for others and should stay away from work or school until they have been free of diarrhoea for 48 hours.