Six patients at the Victoria Infirmary were treated for C Difficile

The health board said none of the patients, at the Victoria Infirmary, were giving cause for concern.

Another ward at the hospital has stopped admissions after three patients were diagnosed with symptoms of suspected viral gastroenteritis.

It comes after a health study linked 90 deaths to C diff bacterium in Kent.

'Powerful poisons'

Police and health and safety officials are investigating Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust after poor hygiene standards were linked to patient deaths at the Kent and Sussex Hospital, Pembury Hospital and Maidstone Hospital.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson ordered that severance payments to Rose Gibb be withheld after she stepped down as head of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

Leading microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington told BBC Scotland there were thousands of cases of "C diff" as it is known in Scottish hospitals every year.

However, he said that did not undermine the potential seriousness of any outbreak.

He said:�"C diff is a very dangerous bug, it is in the same league as E.coli 0157 and for the same reasons - it gets into your intestines and produces very powerful poisons which can be lethal in about 7% of cases."

The Clostridium family also includes the bacteria that cause tetanus, botulism and gas gangrene.

The difficulty in controlling C diff is that it produces spores that can survive for a long time in the environment.

C diff ranges from a mild diarrhoea to a very severe illness with ulceration and bleeding from the colon and, at worst, perforation of the intestine leading to peritonitis.

It is found in about one in 50 healthy adults, who carry the bug without it causing any problems.

It mainly causes infection amongst patients who have received recent antibiotic therapy, especially the elderly.