Monday, 18 May 2009 - Initial tests show that Greece has its first case of swine flu, a Greek Health Ministry spokesman said on Monday.

“The initial tests show that Greece has the flu,” a ministry spokesman said. “It is expected to be confirmed in a second test in a few hours,” the spokesman told Reuters.

The tests concern a Greek man traveling from the United States, he said, adding that he was not being hospitalized at the moment and was staying home.

The H1N1 flu strain is spreading fast in Japan and the world may be seeing an influenza pandemic unfold, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.

Most of those cases have been deemed related to travel or restricted within schools, and not examples of the new virus spreading freely in broad communities, according to the WHO.

The Greek Health Ministry has said the country has enough “strategic stocks” of Tamiflu and other antivirus medicine to treat 12 percent of the country’s 11 million population. Two hospitals in Athens were equipped to treat swine flu patients.

Source:http://www.reuters.com/article/internal_ReutersNewsRoom_ExclusivesAndWins_MOLT