LONDON - BRITAIN'S health minister Andy Burnham says the country could have 100,000 new cases of swine flu every day by August.

Britain has officially reported 7,747 cases and three deaths, but officials acknowledge the real number of swine flu cases is far higher, since many cases are not identified.

Britain is Europe's hardest-hit nation, and many flu experts have said numbers could jump exponentially now that the virus is entrenched. Because swine flu, or H1N1, is a new virus, few people have any natural immunity, allowing the virus to spread rapidly.

The World Health Organisation has said that 2 billion people could eventually be infected with swine flu worldwide. When the agency declared swine flu to be a pandemic last month, it said the virus was now 'unstoppable'. Most cases are mild and require no medical treatment. More than 77,000 cases, including 332 deaths, have been reported worldwide.

Mr Burnham announced in the House of Commons Thursday that Britain was going to stop liberally giving out Tamiflu to all cases and their contacts, and that the antiviral would only be used to treat patients. Many experts have criticised Britain's approach to the outbreak for wasting resources and drugs and pursuing a strategy that could also lead to antiviral resistance.

The sharp jump in Britain's numbers may also reflect the country's previous refusal to look for the disease. When swine flu arrived in the UK, officials only tested people who had previously travelled to North America, where the outbreak began, or if they were contacts of a confirmed case.

That meant the testing system was designed specifically not to pick up the virus' spread into communities. WHO's pandemic declaration was made partly because it did not believe a number of countries including Britain were accurately reporting their swine flu outbreaks.

Mr Burnham also predicted the first doses of swine flu vaccine would arrive in Britain in August. But many experts doubt whether the vaccine will be available that quickly since it first needs to be produced, tested in humans and meet regulatory approval - a process that may take longer than two months. -- AP