French Health Ministry announced Thursday in a statement that tests on a
suspected bird flu patient on the French Reunion island are proved negative.
The man, who is still kept in quarantine in a hospital on the Indian Ocean
island, "is not a carrier of the H5N1 virus, but rather a flu virus of another
sort," said the statement.
And tests results are awaited for two other patients on the island whose
similar symptoms sparked fears Wednesday, it added.
The three all recently returned from a vacation in Thailand, where they had
visited a zoo housing birds.
Thai authorities on Thuesday said it was "impossible" for the three persons
to have been infected with the H5N1 disease just because they went to the zoo.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told media that the type of case had
never happened in Thailand and investigation was going on.
Thailand reported the 13th human death from bird flu last week. It has 19
confirmed cases of the virus in humans but no cases of human-to-human
transmission have been confirmed so far.