here has accelerated dramatically with 500 people infected in the past week.
The pace at which people are being infected was underlined as two victims fight for their lives in intensive care.
The surge in cases suggests the prevalence of the flu is much more widespread than official figures have previously shown.
Although 276 cases have been officially confirmed through swabs and laboratory tests, GPs have now recorded hundreds of people showing symptoms of the disease in just the past seven days.
As concern grew over the impending scale of the problem, a 30-year-old Slovakian man remained critically ill in St James's Hospital, where he has been treated since Friday after becoming seriously ill in his Dublin home.
