Greece is beginning to feel the full shock wave of the impact as the H1N1 flu strain is spreading ever wider Since the beginning of this week alone, more than  200 new cases have been identified in the country.

According to the Greek daily Kathimerini, Greek doctors urged the government on July 29 to make arrangements for more rooms to be made available for intensive-care patients, as a consequence of the rapid increase in the number of infected people, including that a 16-year-old British girl, who became the third person to suffer serious problems after contracting the virus.

The Hellenic Center for Infectious Diseases Control said in a statement on July 29 that 210 people had contracted swine flu between July 20 and 27, taking the total number of confirmed cases in Greece to 730.

What is more alarming is the possibility that there were a lot more infected people out there who had not checked in a hospital and their condition was left untreated, Greek medical officials have said.

The Greek health minister Dimitris Avramopoulos said that Greece is due to receive the first batch of vaccine against swine flu on September 14, ahead of a mass inoculation program designated to take place in the country.

Considering the amount of traffic between the Greece and Bulgaria, the widening reach of the H1N1 strain south of the border could soon spread into Bulgaria, not least because of the thousands of Bulgarians on holiday in Greece.

According to Angel Kunchev, the head of the infectious disease control department at the Bulgarian Health Ministry, the vast majority of infected Bulgarian citizens are people who had recently returned from abroad, mainly the United States and the United Kingdom.

Additionally, the situation is exacerbated by the fact that other Bulgarians have contracted the strain from people returning from abroad. According to official medical reports, the total number of infected in Bulgaria stands at 40, although the number could be higher.