NEW YORK - A woman died of swine flu over the weekend, becoming the city's second victim and the nation's 11th.
The woman, who was in her 50s, had other health conditions, said Jessica Scaperotti, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene spokeswoman. No other information on her case was disclosed yesterday.
Mitchell Wiener, an assistant public school principal who died May 17, was the city's first death from the virus. The 55-year-old had been sick for several days.
There were 280 confirmed cases of swine flu in the city and 94 hospitalizations as of yesterday, Scaperotti said. The number of confirmed cases probably doesn't fully reflect the spread of the virus, given that health officials aren't testing everyone for the H1N1 strain.
"It's most likely that if you're sick with the flu, that you have the H1N1 virus," Scaperotti said.
Those people with chronic health conditions such as diabetes and compromised immune systems who are suffering from flu-like symptoms should seek medical advice, Scaperotti said. Only those with more serious symptoms, such as shortness of breath, should go to emergency rooms, she said.
The city's first outbreak of swine flu occurred about a month ago, when more than 1,000 teenagers at a Catholic high school in Queens began falling ill following the return of several students from vacations in Mexico, where the virus was first detected.
The virus has coursed through the city's schools and even reached its jail system, where inmates' visiting hours have been limited.
The World Health Organization, as of Friday, had tallied more than 12,000 swine flu cases worldwide, with more than half of them in the United States. It counted at least 86 deaths, 75 of those in Mexico.