Backstreet Boy Littrell allowed to fly home

Backstreet Boys star Brian Littrell has reportedly been released from quarantine and allowed to fly back home to Los Angeles after being diagnosed with swine flu.

The group were returning to the US from a video shoot in Japan last week when Littrell began to feel unwell. He later learned that he had contracted the H1N1 virus and was placed in seclusion in a New York hotel, TMZ reports.

Bandmate Nick Carter said of his isolation: "They locked him up in the hotel... He couldn't get food handed to him; they had to leave it at the door [of his room] and just walk away."

Littrell, who told fans about the virus in an online video on Monday, has since been given the all-clear.