An Italian woman hospitalised in Tibet on suspicion she contracted the new H1N1 flu has been released after tests definitively showed she did not have the virus and she no longer had any fever, the Italian embassy here said.
The embassy added that it has learned of her release directly from the woman hereself, described as 42-year-old tourist from the central-eastern city of Ascoli Piceno.
The woman is part of a group of 23 foreigners who entered Tibet from Nepal last week.
While she was in hospital the other members of the group were placed ''under observation'' in their hotel.
The group is now expected to continue its tour.
The embassy has issued a reminder to any Italians wishing to visit China that local health officials have imposed strict controls on all arriving visitors to avoid any repetition of the 2003 SARS epidemic.
Anyone found having even the slightest fever for any reason will be placed in quarantine as a precaution, the embassy said.
At present there have been seven confirmed cases of the new flu in China while dozens of foreign tourists, including several Italians, have already been subjected to brief periods of quarantine.
There have now been close to 10,000 confirmed cases of the new flu, also known as Influenza A or Swine Flu, in 40 countries.
A total of 79 people have died from the flu, all of them in Central and Northern America.
The vast majority of fatalities, 72, have been in Mexico, where the outbreak started, while there have been five deaths in the United States and one each in Canada and Costa Rica.
