Two more Phila. deaths from swine flu confirmed

Two more Philadelphia residents have died of complications related to swine flu, officials with the city Department of Public Health said last night.

Both patients - a man and a woman - were described only as middle-aged adults with underlying medical conditions whose infections were confirmed posthumously late last week.

The deaths in Philadelphia, only one of which was included in yesterday's update by the state Department of Health, were the fourth and fifth in Pennsylvania attributed to influenza A(H1N1). and the third in Philadelphia.

Six people have died in New Jersey, all in the northern part of the state.

Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware were among 12 states with widespread influenza, a measure of geographic spread that does not indicate severity or type of flu, for the week ending June 20, the latest surveillance report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A CDC official estimated on Thursday that as many as one million Americans had been infected with swine flu, with rates as high as 6 percent in some urban populations.

Like those with seasonal flu, most patients with H1N1 have not been formally tested. - Don Sapatkin