Congo suspected H1N1 case tests negative - WHO

Tue May 26, 2009 10:55am GMT

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KINSHASA May 26 (Reuters) - An engineer working for mining giant Freeport-MacMoRan in Democratic Republic of Congo has tested negative for H1N1 flu, the World Health Organisation's representative in the country said on Tuesday.

"We received the results last night. They were negative. I can confirm that," Matthieu Kamwa told Reuters.

The suspected victim recently returned from a holiday in his native Chile where cases of the deadly flu have been confirmed. He works at Freeport's Tenke Fungurume mine in Katanga province, one of Congo's biggest mining projects.

On Friday, Kamwa said the Chilean was "strongly suspected" of carrying the virus.

Health officials are still awaiting test results of samples taken from another suspected case in the vast central African nation's eastern border province of North Kivu.

The latest WHO figures show the strain has infected nearly 13,000 people in 46 countries, killing 92 of them. Africa remains unaffected by the flu. (Reporting by Joe Bavier; Editing by Daniel Magnowski and Robert Woodward)

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