Hong Kong reported its first suspected death of H1N1 virus among the 1552 confirmed cases on Thursday.

The man, a 42-year-old Philippine seaman, had symptoms of a fever, cough and chest pains on July 3 and was sent to Ruttonjee Hospital with pneumonia on July 8. His condition deteriorated after respiratory failure and died on July 10.

In earlier test, he was found to be infected with the community-associated Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (CA-MRSA) in the blood, according to Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) on Thursday.

An autopsy on Wednesday night revealed he also tested positive for H1N1 virus, but it's still unknown if he died of the H1N1 flu, CHP said.

More laboratory tests and a post-mortem examination will be conducted to find out the cause of the man's death, said Dr Thomas Tsang, Controller of CHP. He did not rule out the possibility of human swine flu being a factor.

The Hong Kong government announced 85 new cases of H1N1 in the past 24 hours up to 2:30 pm on Thursday, bringing the total tally to 1,552. Two people are critical while four are in serious condition.

Tsang noted Hong Kong is in the summer peak flu season, with human swine flu virus at an active stage.

Medicine