The British government's Chief Medical Officer, Prof Liam Donaldson, was forced to admit yesterday that Britain's flu crisis had become a "serious epidemic". He conceded also that the actual number of people suffering was probably double the official figure released by the Department of Health.
"There's a hidden element to this epidemic. We feel it's a lot higher and climbing. We think we are in for the big one", he said yesterday.
The Department of Health has estimated that 144 people in 100,000 now have the bug although the real figure is thought to be closer to 300 in 100,000.
The discrepancy is largely thanks to the number of people who are using the NHS telephone helpline instead of going to surgeries, where their cases would be recorded.
As the National Health Service strained under the pressure of treating those afflicted, government representatives sought to reassure the public that the NHS would remain in control of the problem. The Health Secretary, Mr Alan Milburn, promised that intensive care units would be available for all who needed them despite media reports that units all over Britain were already stretched to the limit. "I think the NHS has been coping tremendously well," he told the BBC yesterday.
"What's true is that the NHS is up against a very serious outbreak of flu indeed. The official figures probably under-record the true level of flu and I think that's borne out by people's own experience. There can hardly be a family in the land that hasn't been hit by the flu," said Mr Milburn.
He went on to say that the current virus was causing much more serious complications than those usually associated with influenza and that many of those going into hospital were having to stay longer than would normally be expected.
"We know that there's real pressure on intensive care", he admitted, "but it wouldn't be true to say that patients are being denied critical care who need it". The Department of Health disclosed yesterday that only 21 intensive care unit beds were left in the country.
Anxiety over the lack of intensive care availability has become the major public concern in the midst of the outbreak.
Meanwhile, the private healthcare company, BUPA, has offered intensive care beds to the NHS, pledging that in the light of the crisis normal commercial arrangements would not apply.
"We are talking about people living or dying and the epidemic is not going to peak for another few days", Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen of BUPA told GMTV yesterday. "What's on offer, as we speak, is 19 intensive care beds. . . This is a quid pro quo arrangement - sometimes we ask the NHS for help," he said.
The chairman of the British Medical Association, Dr Ian Bogle, last night urged flu sufferers not to take up busy doctors' time unless absolutely necessary, while also questioning whether there really was a flu epidemic.
Dr Bogle suggested that it might be a variety of viral infections which are actually stretching the NHS's resources. "I do not think the epidemic exists," he said. "A lot of people phoning the NHS direct say they have flu but I expect they don't. What we have is a lot of viral infections and in most cases we have nothing to offer this - antibiotics don't work."
The Shadow Health Secretary, Mr Liam Fox, attacked Mr Milburn for insisting that the NHS was managing.
"If Alan Milburn really believes that the health service is coping well he must be living in an isolation unit all on his own," he said.
"Doctors, nurses and patients who are living in the real world are astonished that the health service of the world's fifth-largest economy in the 21st century should be brought to its knees by a flu epidemic," Mr Fox said.
The Department of Health has stated that the situation is not, for the moment, being officially treated as an epidemic as the usual gauge of an epidemic is that 400 of every 100,000 people be afflicted. Influenza contributes to an estimated 3,500 deaths every year in Britain.