AAP:

The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) says it asked for more nurses at Melbourne's Broughton Hall nursing home before a recent outbreak of gastroenteritis that has claimed five lives.

Another five elderly residents of the Camberwell home are in hospital.

Yvonne Chaperon of the ANF said her organisation had written to Broughton Hall management last year asking for more professional nurses to be put on staff.

"They are able to assess their patients or residents by taking their vital signs," Ms Chaperon told ABC Television's Lateline.

"They can then interpret the results of those vital signs and establish whether someone's condition has deteriorated."

Two more patients were taken to hospital on Tuesday night after falling ill at the nursing home.

It's yet to be confirmed that their illnesses are related to the gastro outbreak at the home, a government health spokesman said.

A Metropolitan Ambulance Service spokeswoman said two people, one a woman in her 90s, were taken to hospital in a serious condition from Broughton Hall between 6pm (AEST) and 6.30pm on Tuesday.

"We have been made aware that two residents at Broughton Hall have been taken to hospital tonight, but it is unclear if their hospitalisation is related to the gastro outbreak," Department of Human Services spokesman Bram Alexander said.

"They will be further assessed at hospital as appropriate."

A source said the two people were vomiting.

The latest news came as it was revealed that three residents struck down by gastroenteritis at the Melbourne nursing home were infected with salmonella, despite denials of a food poisoning outbreak.

Tests on Tuesday confirmed traces of the potentially lethal bug in two elderly residents at the nursing home and hostel as the death toll rose to five.

The Camberwell nursing home on Monday claimed the illness, which affected 21 residents, was not food poisoning, citing only one confirmed case of salmonella in a patient detected on Friday.

Tests of faecal samples by the Department of Human Services (DHS) has confirmed another two cases of salmonellosis, which is predominantly a food-borne bacterial infection.

© 2007 AAP