Avian flu in Greece, again.

The announcement mentions that in the seventh week of its virus observation, the Lab has been receiving a large amount of specimens, most of which have tested positive to the virus.

According to the Institute, the usual H1N1 virus is the dominant strain, but there is also an ongoing presence of the H3N2 virus. These are both type-A flu viruses, but last week two more stems of type-B viruses have been detected.

In an attempt to ease public fear, the Pasteur Institute stresses out that lab results show all virus stems are no different than the one used in the seasonal anti-virus shot and that they are vulnerable to anti-flu medicine.

Greece is not the only European country suffering from a flu attack. Bulgaria, Finland, France, Italy, Malta, Spain and the UK have had a rise in influenza cases. The rest of Europe seems unaffected at the moment.

The Pasteur Institute continues its lab experiments for better assessment of the current alert and the best possible representation of the virus spread in the country. It also stresses that there are other respiratory viruses on the rise and people should be very careful to avoid them.