British girl fights for life with swine flu in Athens. Why did she still travel?

If people would stay home when they are sick things like that would not spread but they want do it.. when i worked my customer's would come in the shop sick, some running a temp, etc. it always made me mad when they did that, very inconsiderate but they had to get that hair fixed no matter what. Seems to me the headline is misleading. I hear what u are saying!!

Hi, sometimes the media leaves room for misinterpretation since they don't give all details or may be unknown until time of publishing. well swine flu seems to have spread in all countries. In Malta the first known cases were in June when some people cam back from Spain. then we started having others coming from Uk and other countries it now spread between locals but thankfully many have already recovered from it. I will still go on holiday next month since it is the same I could either get infected here or there. Everyone needs to keep good hygiene so to avoid such infection. If the parents did not take this girl at the first signs it was their bad. It is said that the symptoms are similar to normal flu so some people thought it was nothing. Happy mylotting!

There hasn't been a lot of information given about swine flu in England, many are saying not enough. We haven't been told not to travel on holidays for example even though it started in Mexico and children who were on holiday from England in Japan got quarantined. And do you know there are no symptoms of swine flu for the first 2 days? So the girls parents probably didn't know she had it when they set out on holiday. I don't think the headline is misleading at all it doesn't matter where she got it, it's turning into a global pandemic soon every country in the world will have it. It was already in Greece anyway so she may have caught it there we don't know, this article says the number of cases in Greece hit 730 3 days ago so you are no more or less safe from there than anywhere else in the world. http://www.sofiaecho.com/2009/07/30/763981_number-of-swine-flu-cases-in-greece-reaches-730

Hi my friend Theo. I feel so sorry for the girl and hope she will soon recover from the swine flu. I can't understand why her parents allowed her to travel if they knew she had swine flu. Headlines on newspapers can be misleading. Someone seeing that on a newspaper stand might make the person think she caught swine flu in Greece. It might lead a lot of people assuming that due to the risk of catching swine flu visiting Greece is unsafe. I read about a boy that came down with swine flu on the opening night of a music festival. He thought about the other people and the risk of them catching it. He got his dad to collect him. He came back home missing out of the festival that has spent ages saving up for. A traveler with insurance would probably get their money back if they caught swine flu and were not able to go on their booked trip. People with swine flu should stay at home recovering if it is mild or be in hospital if it is serious. The risks of old people, babies, young children and sick people are worrying. The girl didn't know this probably but her parents should have.

Hi there as usual the media are managing to cause a controversy! They have left the subject open to many interpretations and we are all at risk of fallin into the trap they intend to lure us into. When not given ALL the facts surrounding a subject, it is very difficult to cast judgement which can be justified. The facts I am aware of are:- * with swine flu are that you can contract it and carry it for 4 - 5 days before symptoms present * it most affects the vulnerable such as babies, the elderly, those with underlying health problems such as asthma etc * symptoms present in many different ways and don't necessarily point towards swine flu such as headache, hayfever like symptoms * it affects people in many different ways - 2 friends of mine who had it said it was nowhere near as bad as regular flu. I sympathise with the family for the difficulties they are facing but I think to cast blame in any direction would be an appalling thing to do

that is really pathetic, the other time a little boy from the united states flew in to south africa and more than 10 people were infected in the plane alone and now south africa has recorded more than 100 cases of the virus and schools are being closed now for the fear of the spread of the infection

If you are desperate to take a trip and you take enough medicine to mask the symptoms you can probably get away with traveling. OR she may not have been so very ill when she was leaving London, but the stress of traveling weakened her system and she got more ill than she would have if she had stayed at home and rested. I agree, the headlines are misleading.

I didn't read the article but everytime I fly I get sick. It's the weirdest thing, I will get almost flu-like symptoms but not really be sick because then the next day I am usually fine (unless it's my ears which happens a lot because of my ear problems). If I was sick but not sick enough to stay home or anything like that I personally wouldn't turn down a trip to Athens. Then again, I don't know how sick she was before she left London...but you are right that headline is misleading by making Athens seem unsafe because of the swine flu.

This latest flu has taken the world by storm. Everyday our papers have news of people infected by this virus. Many colleges are now temporarily close to avoid their students getting the flu when few students were detected to have the swine flu. I think those who have contracted the virus should be quarantined and not allowed to travel to other countries as it will only spread the virus to the host country. See how reports being distorted because of no restriction of traveling to those who have this flu. It is unfair to pinpoint the country she landed in as the source where she contracted the virus.

I think sometimes people don't think with their heads as much as they think with other things like in this instance their wallets. Probably figured it was just a "bug" or the child was being a pain so they thought nothing of it and didn't want to loose on their airfare ect and continued on.

It is really the duty of the airport checking staff to ensure that no person with such illness enters another country. However, swine flu has spread around the world now and it is a matter of chance when you are caught up with it.I don't think its effect can be limited to a particular country. May be the girl got the flu in Greece itself, not in U.K. Since it is not mentioned how long was the gap between her entering Greece and getting flu, we can't conclude much from this.

Thea, the media are making Swine Flu the biggest threat to human existence since the Great Plague wiped out over half the population of Europe in the 14th century. One kid whose parents are either too thick or too uncaring to seek medical advice, and suddenly Greece is a no-go zone. It's disgusting, but it sells papers, and I don't think anything can be done. The thousands of people who have had a great holiday in your part of the world aren't news, but the kid whose parents were so irresponsible as to travel with a sick child will be household names. It's not fair, but then us old birds already know that life isn't fair, don't we?