City Investigates Latest Swine Flu Death

After yesterday's news that an 11-week-old baby with swine flu died, the city's health department said that while the child did have swine flu, so far it's unclear whether swine flu was the cause of death; the medical examiner's office will perform more tests. And while the Daily News reported the baby's name and residence—Steven Montanez of the Bronx—yesterday, the city declined to provide the name citing privacy laws. The NY Times also reports that the ME's office confirmed that the cause of death for assistant principal Mitch Wiener was swine flu, but "tests on [Wiener] , had listed 'significant and contributing' factors: obesity and hypertensive and arteriosclerotic heart disease." (Hello, underlying conditions?) The number of confirmed swine flu cases in NYC is 538; 229 have been hospitalized.