First swine flu case in Greece
Health Ministry officials are to hold an emergency meeting this morning after tests on a 19-year-old Greek student who recently returned to Athens from the US confirmed that he has been infected with swine flu. Deputy Health Minister Giorgos Papageorgiou confirmed late yesterday that the student, who returned to Athens on Saturday after nearly five months in the US, had tested positive for the potentially lethal H1N1 flu strain. But the official sought to play down the development. «There is no reason for concern… The patient is in good condition. His fever and general condition are not worrying us,» Papageorgiou said. The 19-year-old, who underwent tests for H1N1 at Athens’s Sismanogleio Hospital, was to undergo another set of tests at the Hellenic Pasteur Institute, an organization for scientific and public health research, a ministry spokesperson said.
