Hospitals fill up with flu patients as virus takes toll

With mortalities from the flu reportedly so far exceeding 40 in Greece since October, hundreds of people with symptoms of the H1N1 virus are reportedly arriving at state hospitals which are struggling to prevent its spread among medical staff.

"The last time the Georgios Gennimatas Hospital was on duty, half of Athens turned up," the president of the union of Athens and Piraeus hospital doctors, Matina Pagoni, told Kathimerini.

"People are panicking and come in with the slightest of symptoms," she said, adding that many people are forced to wait for hours outside hospital emergency units. "If they don't have the flu, they are at risk of contracting it. If they do have it, they may give to other patients," Pagoni explained.

She advises that the best thing people that develop symptoms can do is stay at home and contact their family doctor, who will decide if they...