Swine Flu Ruled Out In 1 of 2 L.A. Deaths
April 28, 2009 by national
Filed under National Interest
At least one of the two deaths that were under investigation by the Los Angeles County Coroners Office was not caused by swine flu, a public health official said Tuesday during a news conference.
Los Angeles County public health officer Dr. Jonathan Fielding said Tuesday during a news briefing that news reports of two possible deaths were initially “misreported.”
“One is definitely not swine flu and the other one is still being looked at,” he said. But … I wouldn’t be surprised if we have deaths associated with influenza. And, if swine flu is like seasonal influenza, we would expect that we would have some deaths associated with it.”
Coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey told the Los Angeles Times earlier Tuesday that a Bellflower, California-hospital reported the death of a 33-year-old Long Beach man who was brought in Saturday with symptoms resembling swine flu.
Coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter said Tuesday that swine flu was not found in a La Mirada man who died with flu-like symptoms.
Winter says lab testing is pending in the case of a Long Beach man, but swine flu is now not suspected.
