"If you have a person who is severely ill or a person with risk factors like pregnancy, asthma, diabetes, children under 2, and you suspect flu, we recommend any antiviral medicines be given promptly".
Moreover, once members of the public with suspect flu symptoms were advised in early May 2009 not to attend general practitioner surgeries or accident and emergency departments unless they were seriously ill or advised to do so, 11 the case mix of those receiving primary care from their general practitioners was likely to have changed.
And on Friday, Quest Diagnostics, the country's largest laboratory, said its tests of 142,000 suspected flu specimens since May showed that the flu peaked in late October.
The Department of Health said today that 738 people with confirmed or suspected flu were in "critical care" beds, a substantial rise on last week's figure of 460.
In the past week, the number of GP consultations in England for flu or suspected flu has fallen to 40.7 per 100,000, down from 66.5 per 100,000 the previous week.
Health secretary Andrew Lansley ordered the reinstatement after it was confirmed that the number of people in critical care with confirmed or suspected flu in England has risen to 738, including 42 youngsters under five.
They urged doctors to test suspected flu cases as quickly as possible to see if they are influenza A or influenza B, and if they are A, whether they are H1 or H3 viruses.
The number of people with known or suspected flu being treated in critical care units in hospitals has jumped from 460 to 738 - a rise of 278 in a week.
Tonna Hospital in Neath, Llynfi Ward in Maesteg Hospital and Ward G in Neath Port Talbot Hospital have cases of confirmed or suspected flu.
Both then introduced a pandemic virus and looked at whether it could be contained by giving a 10-day prophylactic course of oseltamivir to the contacts of every suspected flu patient--either by treating everyone in their household, school, or workplace, or by simply giving it to anyone living within a certain radius.
In the case of her son, Ari, Dr. Moscona had every reason to suspect swine flu.
