A Romanian woman suspected of having caught bird flu has tested negative for the deadly virus, the Romanian news agency Rompres reported on Saturday.

"From preliminary clinical tests there is nothing to sustain the bird flu diagnosis," said Mariana Mardarescu, spokeswoman for the Matei Bals Infectious Diseases Hospital where the woman received treatment.

The 81-year-old woman comes from a village in east Romania. The village has been quarantined after H5N1 was detected among birds there and the woman was admitted a week ago to hospital with a high fever and respiratory problems.

Mardarescu said the results of further tests would be available on Sunday. The woman will remain under medical supervision for up to a week.

Bird flu has been found in 25 villages in east and south Romania since October, but no human cases have been reported there. Authorities have so far lifted the quarantine on 16 areas.

The H5N1 bird flu virus was first found to have spread to people in 1997. It resurfaced in 2003 and has since infected at least 152 people and killed 83, according to the World Health Organization.

Scientists fear the virus could soon mutate lnto a form easily transmissible between humans and cause a global pandemic similar to the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak.

Source: Xinhua