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She's got an infection of methicillin-sensitive staphylococcus aureus (MSSA). The bacterium is a close relation to the hospital "superbug", methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), that has so often hit newspaper headlines in recent years.

Having recovered psychologically from the derisory coverage of her cosmetically enhanced lips last year, the Men Behaving Badly actress had been recovering from a broken rib and collapsed lung (caused by "energetic sex" with her husband, former Stoke City and Leeds United footballer Lee Chapman) at Chelsea and Westminster hospital, when the bug is thought to have struck.

She was admitted to Charing Cross hospital days after leaving Chelsea and Westminster after being laid low with an infection that left her without any feeling in the lower part of her body. Ash's spokesperson says she probably caught the bug from her stay at Chelsea and Westminster.

Unlike its cousin, MSSA can be treated with a mixture of antibiotics. MRSA itself is treated with one, vancomycin, but is causing grave concern at many hospitals, where it normally infects patients with open wounds or those who have recently undergone surgery, especially if they have been in hospital for an extended period or have undergone broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment. MRSA and MSSA infections are most likely to take hold of patients in the weakest conditions.

People can also carry MRSA or MSSA without having any infection, so allowing the disease to spread through the hospital or community.

Consultants treating Ash have said that while her condition is serious, it is not life-threatening. The attributed death rate for MSSA is 8%, compared with 21% for MRSA.