The Qatari national, who died of swine flu, could not be diagnosed of the virus early enough because he was having severe pneumonia, a senior health official said yesterday.

"The victim had already received treatment in a private hospital in Dubai before he came to Hamad Hospital with advanced lung disease and his condition was critical because he was admitted straight to the intensive care unit," said Dr Abdullatif al-Khal, a senior consultant on infectious diseases at HMC.

The Qatari, 36, was admitted to the hospital on July 26 and was diagnosed of the virus on July 30, a day before his death on July 31.

Dr al-Khal said severe pneumonia cases in Qatar were due to bacteria and not due to viral infection and there was a standard protocol for treating people with such condition coming from within the community. "The patient was being treated like a community-acquired pneumonia patient and even if the diagnosis was made on day one or day two of his coming to the hospital, which was not possible, it is unlikely that with such advanced pneumonia treatment will be effective."

Dr al-Khal said that in patients with severe pneumonia, the swine flu virus would go to the lungs and would cause severe inflammation that no matter what medical intervention was made, the patients could not be cured of the virus.

"Even if the diagnosis was made earlier, it would not have made any difference because those people mainly require supportive treatment and this is the same scenario for those who died in Mexico, the US and Britain,” he said.