Hong Kong reported the fourth confirmed case of influenza A/H1N1, which involved a female student who recently came back from the United States, local health authorities announced Friday evening.

The patient, a 19-year-old local resident studying in the U.S., returned from New York in the U.S. to Hong Kong onboard the Cathay Pacific flight CX831 on May 18, said Thomas Tsang, controller of the Center for Health Protection at a press briefing on Friday.

Tsang said that the patient was on the same flight taken by a Taiwanese man who was confirmed the first A/H1N1 flu patient in Taiwan on May 20. The two sat two rows apart on the plane and it was still unclear if the female patient contracted the new strain from the man.

The woman did not develop any flu symptom until May 21 and has been rushed to the Princess Margaret Hospital for quarantine, he said, adding that her parents will go through some body check-ups arranged by health authorities.

(Xinhua News Agency May 23, 2009)