UPDATE: The L.A. County Coroner's Office is beginning to rule out swine flu as the cause of the Orange County man's death (see below), while announcing that swine flu is not suspected in the case of the Long Beach victim. Autopsies and final rulings are still pending.

The L.A. Times reports that county health agencies are looking into two recent deaths as possibly being connected to the outbreak of swine flu. The Times quotes a coroner's spokesman as saying a 33-year-old Long  Beach resident died at Bellflower Medical Center yesterday of swine-flu-like symptoms, including shortness of breath, lymphoma and pneumonia. A second man, 45, died last week in Orange County of pneumonia — although the county health department refused to accept a private doctor's report on the death and referred it to the coroner.

Image: Nuke Pills

So far no deaths in the United State have officially been attributed to swine flu — Mexico's 152 fatalities are the only recorded deaths linked to the outbreak. According to the Village Voice, the Centers for Disease Control claim there are currently 13 confirmed swine flu cases in California, with most of the country's cases concentrated in the New York City area. There, 45 confirmed cases of swine flu are clustered at St. Francis Prep in Queens, Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference today. Bloomberg said that hundreds more at St. Francis have been reported as “sickened,” and are being tested. He also noted that apart from St. Francis, flu reports in the city are in line with typical figures for this time of year.
 

In addition, however, a dozen children have been diagnosed with the flu at PS

177, a special-needs school not far from St. Francis, and are being

tested. Some of the St. Francis students had recently vacationed in

Mexico.

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