Ill tourists 'not carrying bird flu virus'

Tests have confirmed that three people on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion are not carrying the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, as first feared, the Health Ministry said today.

Two people tested negative today in follow-up examinations by the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

The third person, a 43-year-old man, was determined not to be carrying the illness yesterday, the ministry said.