HONOLULU -- A college student from the Big Island who died from a flu-like illness may have contracted a severe form of dengue fever, KITV-4 News has learned.

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Simon Hultman, 22, (pictured, left) of Pahoa died two weeks ago from a mysterious flu-like illness. He was a senior in international studies at Washington College.

Friends describe him as "brilliant."

On Jan.14, Hultman left Hawaii to return to begin another semester.

"His sister said he had kind of a cold, not a bad cold but a runny nose kind of cold," his mother, Diane Hultman, said.

Five days later Simon phoned his mother.

"I came home from church and I had a message on my answering machine 'Mom, I'm sick, I have a headache. They're giving me a spinal tap. I'm in the hospital.' And then he hung up," Diane Hultman said.

Simon Hultman died the next day. His mother said Maryland health authorities told her tests done on her son indicated he died from dengue hemorrhagic fever, which is contacted through a bite from an infected mosquito. Dengue hemorrhagic fever is a more severe form of dengue that can be fatal if unrecognized and not properly treated.

Hawaii Health officials asked for a retest of dengue fever because false positives can occur. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is conducting the second test.

Hawaii is no stranger to dengue fever. Two years ago, the state successfully wiped out an outbreak that sickened 119 people. No one died.

However, the outbreak was not the severe form known as dengue hemorrhagic.

Dengue is transmitted to people by the bite of a mosquito infected with the virus. It works the other way, too. A mosquito not infected can contract the virus by biting an infected human. Dengue cannot be passed from person to person.

Worldwide, more than 100 million cases of dengue fever occur every year, but only a small percent develop the more severe dengue hemorrhagic fever. Hawaii's state Health Department hesitates to confirm Hultman's diagnosis until a second, more precise, test can be done.