MOSCOW, May 22 (RIA Novosti) - A man said earlier on Friday to be the first person in Russia to contract the swine flu virus has told RIA Novosti that he "feels fine."
Russia's Health Ministry announced earlier in the day that the first case of human swine flu had been diagnosed in the country.
"According to a statement by the chief doctor of the First Infectious Diseases Hospital, a patient has been hospitalized... and was put directly into an isolation ward," a spokesman said. He added that the man was in a stable condition with a normal temperature.
However, chief sanitary official Gennady Onishchenko had told RIA Novosti that the man had returned to Moscow from the U.S. on the night of May 21, and although he was initially suspected of carrying the A/H1N1 virus, he turned out to be suffering only from sinus trouble.
"I don't have a temperature. I'm getting injections of something...I feel fine," the man, who asked not be named, told RIA Novosti through friends.
He also said that doctors had not yet diagnosed his illness.
"They said I have some kind of flu, but they are not sure," he added.
According to the World Health Organization's daily report, a total of 11,168 people in 42 countries worldwide have been officially diagnosed with the A/H1N1 virus as of 06:00 GMT on Friday, with 86 deaths.
Meanwhile, scientists from the U.S., the U.K. and other countries have established that the A/H1N1 virus is genetically linked to the swine, human and bird flu viruses.
The U.S. government has allocated $1 billion to companies involved in A/H1N1 vaccine research.
