Saudi boy in Hong Kong has flu, not Sars-like virus
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Buy SPH photosHONG KONG - A four-year-old Saudi boy in a Hong Kong hospital has flu, not the deadly Sars-like virus as earlier feared, the Centre for Health Protection confirmed on Monday.
A centre spokesman said that the boy tested negative for novel coronavirus whch emerged in the Middle East last month. The virus has killed one man in Saudi Arabia and left a Qatari man, who had visited Saudi Arabia, critically ill.
"Respiratory specimens taken from the boy tested positive for influenza A (H1N1) 2009 virus but negative for novel coronavirus associated with severe respiratory disease," Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post quoted the spokesman as saying.
"The patient is not a case of severe respiratory disease associated with novel coronavirus infection," he added.
