The outbreak of viral illness appeared to have stabilised, doctors' organisations said yesterday, despite a significant number of new cases being reported at hospitals in the west and south-east.
The Irish Medical Organisation said the number of flu and respiratory cases had levelled off over the past two days. A poll of GPs in the Dublin and Wicklow areas found there was no new flu activity, said Dr Dermot Nolan, spokesman for the Irish College of General Practitioners' flu surveillance. This was confirmed by the Mater Hospital, Dublin, where the casualty department was reported to be "very quiet" yesterday. The hospital plans to restart day surgery today.. "The workload has certainly eased off and, hopefully by next week things will have returned to normal," a spokeswoman said.
However, hospitals in the south and west continued to admit more patients suffering from flu and respiratory complaints. Waterford Regional Hospital admitted 105 patients on Wednesday, compared to normal daily admissions of 65. Non-emergency surgery continued to be cancelled at the hospital, which was extremely busy, a spokeswoman said.
The Western Health Board reported that its hospitals in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon continued to be busy yesterday.
Cork University Hospital reported 19 flu-related admissions on Wednesday. Some elective admissions at the hospital were cancelled.
Limerick Regional Hospital remained full yesterday and elective surgery was cancelled. In the mid-west, Ennis General and Nenagh general hospitals were returning to normal and general surgery restarted.
Meanwhile, IMO spokesman Dr Cormac Macnamara believed it was still worthwhile for elderly people and other "at-risk" people to get the flu vaccine. The possibility of the flu which is widespread in Britain spreading to the Republic could not be ruled out, he said.
Wesley College, in Ballinteer, Dublin, announced it was closing for a number of days on the advice of the Eastern Health Board. A number of students became violently ill on Tuesday night. The college principal said that public health officials advised that the school close until next Monday to prevent the infection spreading.
One student had to be hospitalised for a number of hours at St Vincent's Hospital. Dr John Harris, the college principal, said it was not yet clear what had caused the illness, but it appeared to be some type of viral infection, not the flu.
He confirmed that the bug seemed to have hit mainly boarders, both boys and girls, and 22 out of a total of 170 boarders were affected. The nurse who spent Tuesday night caring for those who were ill had contracted the infection. A resident teacher was also ill.
"We just came back to school on Monday and it looks like somebody brought it back with them. Our boarders come from all over Ireland and overseas, from countries such as England, Germany, Spain, Nigeria, Korea and America, and perhaps the bug came back with them," Dr Harris said.
The college also has nearly 700 day pupils and the principal said it was as yet unclear if some of these had also been hit by the bug, as there were so many infections around and some were already suffering from flu.
A spokesperson for the Eastern Health Board said last evening that the cause of infection was possibly gastroenteritis.