A SIGNIFICANT increase in flu-like illness over the Christmas and the new year period has resulted in a major surge in demand for general practitioner services throughout the Republic.
Doctors and out-of-hours services have been treating large numbers of patients with symptoms typical of influenza since just before Christmas.
Some GP co-operatives around the country - which operate call centres and provide medical cover for family doctors at weekends and during holiday periods - have reported their busiest period ever.
The latest figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) confirm a sudden increase in reported cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) in the last two weeks of 2008.
A network of 54 sentinel GP practices report influenza figures to the HPSC on a weekly basis. In the week to last Wednesday, the rate surged to 72.8 cases per 100,000 population, more than four times greater than the normal baseline rate.
This number of cases exceeds the peaks seen in the flu seasons of 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 and is set to climb to rates not seen since 2000/2001.
The sentinel practices report on people who develop a sudden temperature of 38 degrees or greater along with headache, sore throat, dry cough and muscle aches.
Doctors take swabs from these patients and send them to the National Virus Reference Laboratory where they are tested for the presence of the influenza virus.
The latest results from the virus reference laboratory show that the influenza A virus is now circulating here. Genetic testing of these samples confirms the virus as Influenza A/Brisbane/10/2007.
This strain of the virus is included in the current flu vaccine so that people who have been vaccinated should be protected during the present outbreak.
Figures for the last week of December show that people over 65 - those most likely to be vaccinated - are the least affected by the flu outbreak.
Children aged five-14 and adults from 15-64 years have experienced the greatest surge in influenza-like illness.
A doctor on duty in Co Kerry on New Year's Day told The Irish Times that he saw more than 50 per cent more patients than normal. He said the majority of those with influenza symptoms were young men aged 18-35.
Dr Annraoí Finnegan, a GP in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, and national director of Continuing Medical Education with the Irish College of General Practitioners said he was consulted by more than double the number of patients he would expect to see last Sunday. The majority had a flu-like illness, he said.
GP surgeries and co-operatives in Dublin and the southeast also confirmed a surge in demand for medical services in the last week. The surge in influenza here is replicated in some other western European countries.
Levels of ILI are especially high in Portugal, while a significant increase in influenza activity has been reported to the European Influenza Surveillance System by France, Italy, Spain and Northern Ireland.