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Story URL: http://software.silicon.com/malware/0,3800003100,39348158,00.htm

Hospitals still fighting virus infection - day three
Investigation ongoing

By Jo Best

Published: Thursday 20 November 2008

A virus that hit systems at several London hospitals is still causing disruption, days after the infection first occurred.

The virus which infected systems at Barts and the London NHS Trust - including St Bartholomew's in the City, The Royal London in Whitechapel and The London Chest in Bethnal Green - on Tuesday saw the hospitals forced to adopt manual back-up systems after networks became overloaded.

A spokesman for the Trust told silicon.com it doesn't yet know when the systems will be back to normal but it's likely to be days rather than weeks. "There's no firm date yet," he added.

Find out more about the 10 key NHS IT projects here.

From the NHS Care Records Service, to the Picture Archiving and Communications System (Pacs)

The virus has been identified as Mytob, the spokesman said.

According to antivirus vendor McAfee, W32/Mytob.gen@mm - a mass-mailing worm - was first identified in February 2005 and is categorised as a low risk.

The Trust has yet to identify the source of the infection.

"The investigation is ongoing - our priority is getting everyone back on the network. We're continuing our recovery plan. When the PCs get back online, they need to be secure," the spokesman added.

During the virus attack, patient care has been largely functioning as normal, with theatres, outpatient appointments and A&E all remaining operational.

The Trust said it will make a decision as to whether it will change its procedures after the ongoing investigation is complete.