A student who returned from the United States two weekends ago was confirmed as the first case of H1N1 flu in Greece.
Initial tests confirmed the 19-year-old had the virus but is in a stable condition in Athens’s Sismanogleio Hospital.
Deputy Health Minister George Papageorgiou told a news conference that: “This is not a heavy case, he is in very good condition.”
Tests carried out on 16 relatives and friends of the19-year-old Greek student diagnosed with swine flu did not indicate that any of them had contracted the virus.
As for the 19-year-old himself, he was in “very good condition” doctors said.
The 37 passengers of the New York-Athens flight on which the student had travelled were also tested and showed no signs of the H1N1 virus, according to experts at the Hellenic Centre for Infectious Diseases Control.
The passengers tested were those who had been in the seats directly in front, behind and adjacent to the 19-year-old.
Health Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos, who had been on the same flight, is not believed to have been sitting close enough to the teenager to have been exposed to any risk.
Three nurses at the Sismanogleio who had been involved in admitting the student to the hospital were given anti-viral drugs as a precaution. Avramopoulos called for an investigation into the circumstances of the admission after the union representing the nurses lodged a complaint.