Britain's "100,000" new flu cases are just estimates

LONDON, July 25 (Xinhua) -- It was widely reported last week that there were "100,000" new A/H1N1 flu cases in England.

The news immediately caused suspicion about the true number of cases since it is virtually impossible to count that many people one by one within such a short period of time.

Where, then, did the number 100,000 come from?

The number was announced by Britain's Health Department and came from the Health Protection Agency. However, the HPA only "estimated that there were 100,000 new cases of flu in England last week (range from 60,000 to 140,000)."

"The estimate is based on the latest weekly consultation rates for flu-like illness, taking into consideration positivity rates for swine flu H1N1 from HPA's virological sampling and a range of assumptions related to the numbers of people attending their GP (General Practitioner)", the HPA said on its website.

However, it should be noted that the number was based on "flu-like illness," not laboratory confirmed cases. Britain announced in early July that the country would not test the virus for each suspect any more, in order to transfer resources to those most in need.