China's second confirmed A/H1N1 influenza patient was discharged from hospital at 9 a.m. Tuesday after eight days of treatment in this capital of east China's Shandong Province.

Chen Shijun, director of the Infectious Disease Hospital in Jinan, where the patient surnamed Lu was treated, confirmed that lab tests of the flu patient's saliva samples proved negative for A/H1N1 influenza virus on Monday.

The patient who only gave his surname of Lu walked out of isolated ward and shook hands with doctors in the hospital. He joked that he has become a star and only wanted to return to his normal life.

Thirty-eight people were quarantined for having close contact with Lu in the same car of train D41 from Beijing to Jinan on May 11. Their quarantine was lifted on Monday.

He said, "I just finished my middle school study in Canada and am about to enter a college there, so the time staying in China is valuable."

"I wanted to go sightseeing and shopping in Beijing, but at that time, I really didn't know I was infected with A/H1N1," said the 19-year-old Lu.

Lu said on Monday in an interview with Xinhua that he was sorry for those people who were quarantined and he hoped to be understood. Some netizens criticised him for going to many public places and exposing the disease to people.

His father made a public apology Sunday on a local television station, saying his family was sorry that Lu's illness had led to the quarantine of so many people and so much government spending.

The government and health authorities are very much concerned about the health of Chinese students studying abroad amid the spread of A/H1N1 influenza.

"The motherland is the home of Chinese overseas students and we are concerned about your health," said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao upon visiting China's third diagnosed A/H1N1 flu patient in hospital in Beijing on Sunday.

He said overseas students in epidemic areas should learn more to protect themselves from the flu and understand the preventive and control measures China has taken.

Beijing Municipal Health Bureau and Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday jointly issued a letter to the country's overseas students, reminding them of keeping specific travel information and avoiding meeting people in the public when they return home.

China has reported three confirmed A/H1N1 influenza cases. The first A/H1N1 flu patient in the Chinese mainland was discharged from hospital Sunday in southwestern Sichuan Province. The Ministry of Health reported Monday one more suspected case in south China's Guangdong. All of the patients were people who returned from North American region.

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2009)