A Macedonian man who was suspected of having contracted the bird flu virus died of organ failure on Thursday, but tests on him proved negative, news reports reaching in Tirana quoted a Macedonian hospital official as saying.

"All the tests carried out showed that he didn't have the avian flu virus," Zvonko Milenkovic, head of the infectious diseases ward at Skopje hospital, was quoted as saying.

"He died of organ failure," he added.

The man, who was from the town of Strumica in southeastern Macedonia, had been tested for bird flu virus infection because he had kept pigeons, reports said.

He showed the symptoms of pneumonia and had a high fever when he was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday, Milenkovic said.

So far, no confirmed case of bird flu has been reported in wild fowl or domestic birds in Macedonia, although all its neighboring countries have been hit by the lethal strain of the H5N1 avian flu.

Source: Xinhua