Bradfordians have escaped the worst of a flu epidemic sweeping the North of England.

Many people are spluttering their way into the new Millennium, according to new figures showing a massive increase in flu cases.

But Healthcall, the out of hours doctors' service which covers 180 GPs in Bradford, reports that it has been much less busy than this time last year.

Across the whole of the northern region of England and Wales, the number of people suffering from flu has more than doubled in the past week.

The Government's Flu Monitoring Centre in Birmingham says the figure has risen to an alarming 171 cases per 100,000 in the week ending January 2.

That compares to only 80 the previous week and just 41 the week before that. The national average is 144 cases and the northern region now has the highest proportion of cases in the country.

Roger Gardner, Healthcall's branch manager for Leeds and Bradford, said: "There is definitely no comparison with the situation last year. We were snowed under with patient calls, mostly flu and that type of thing.

"Certainly there is a lot of influenza about but compared to last year it's nothing. We've been busy over Christmas and New Year but no more than you would expect."

Dr Peter Rennie, a GP at Idle Medical Centre, said the figures were misleading because there could be wide discrepancies in the levels of flu within the region.

"Last year when Leeds and Bradford were disappearing down the plughole the Department of Health was blithely saying there wasn't an epidemic," he said.

"Last year was absolutely horrendous. The whole system fell apart."

Bill Cobb, manager of the Flu Monitoring Centre, said alarm bells started to sound once the figure went above 200 cases per 100,000.

He said the figures, which show people aged 45 to 64 as being most at risk, were expected to fall in the next weeks after having reached a peak.

Flu can even be a killer, contributing to an average of 3,000 to 4,000 deaths a year. This figure is even higher in epidemics - in 1989 there were 29,000 flu-related deaths.

But Dorothy Jenkins, superintendent registrar for Bradford, said there had not been an unusually high number of deaths registered in the last couple of weeks.

"There's always an increase in the number of deaths we register at this time of year. There is probably a bit of an increase in the number of people who have died from some chest-related condition," she said.

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