The US Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed on Saturday the first case of influenza A/H1N1 flu in Costa Rica, Costa Rican Health Minister Maria Luisa Avila said.

"Today I got a phone call from the CDC to confirm that one of the possible cases we sent to analyze is of H1N1 flu virus, but due to professional reasons I can not said which one of the cases of," Avila told Xinhua.

However, local media said that the patient with H1N1 flu virus is a college student of 21 years old, who returned to the country from Mexico one week ago.

"Now we have two new possible cases which were sent to be analyzed by the CDC. We hope to have the results of these tests in the coming 48 hours," Avila said.

Avila said that in the coming 72 hours Costa Rica will receive genetic material of the virus from the CDC, so the new lab tests could be done in the country.

"The CDC said that Costa Rica will have priority on this, for being the first Latin American country, besides Mexico, which has got a case of H1N1 flu virus confirmed," Avila said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 3, 2009)