Mexican boy visiting Texas 1st US swine flu death

HOUSTON - A Mexico City toddler who traveled to Texas with family to visit relatives is the first confirmed death in the United States from swine flu.

The boy, who was nearly 2 years old, arrived in the border city of Brownsville with “underlying health issues” April 4 and developed flu symptoms four days later, the Texas Department of State Health Services said. He was taken April 13 to a Brownsville hospital and transferred the following day to a hospital in Houston, where he died Monday night.

The cause of death was pneumonia deriving from the flu virus, Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos said. Texas Children’s Hospital, where the boy died, said in a statement he was suffering from “acute respiratory illness.” The hospital planned a news conference later Wednesday.

Officials did not specify what underlying health issues the boy had before arriving in the U.S.

State health officials declined to identify the boy or his family, citing privacy concerns, medical confidentiality and “the absence of an obvious health threat from the boy to the public at large.”

State health officials said the boy would not have been infectious when he flew from Mexico City to Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville. None of his close contacts have developed symptoms.

President Barack Obama said he wanted to extend his “thoughts and prayers” to the child’s family.