US mother becomes second swine flu death outside Mexico

The second swine flu death victim outside Mexico was a 33-year-old teacher who had recently given birth, health officials in the US announced today.

The death came as the World Health Organisation updated its worldwide total of confirmed human cases of swine flu to 1,516.

Doctors in Texas stopped short of saying that swine flu caused the woman’s death. A state health department spokeswoman said the woman had “chronic underlying health conditions” but would not give any more details.

She said the flu exacerbated the woman’s condition. “The swine flu is very benign by itself, by the time she came to see us it was already too late,” she said.

The only other swine flu death in the US previously was of a Mexico City boy who also had underlying health problems and had been visiting relatives in Texas.

There have been 29 other confirmed swine flu deaths, all in Mexico. More than 1,800 cases of the disease have been confirmed in several countries, but mostly in Mexico and the US.

The teacher was from Harlingen, a city of about 63,000 near the US-Mexico border.

The district where she worked announced it would close its schools for the rest of the week, although officials said anyone who might have contracted the disease from her would have shown symptoms by now.

The teacher was first seen by a doctor on April 14 and was taken into hospital on the 19th. The woman delivered a healthy baby and stayed in the hospital until her death.

Doctors knew she had a flu when she came in, but did not know what kind. The area is undergoing a Type A influenza epidemic, of which the swine flu is one variety. She was confirmed to have swine flu shortly before she died.