An autopsy will determine whether the death of a six-year-old boy in Las Cruces was caused by the swine flu, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News.
Cody Scarbrough, a first-grader at Colombia Elementary School, was pronounced dead about 5 p.m. on Tuesday. While officials say they have no indication that the child’s death was swine-flu related, preliminary autopsy results that should be available by Friday should determine whether the child had the virus.
New Mexico currently has no confirmed cases of swine flu, which is rapidly spreading across the globe. The first death outside of Mexico was confirmed today in Houston, where a two-year-old boy from Mexico died.
Scarborough was sent home from school on Tuesday with a fever. According to Sheriff’s Sgt. Joe Reynaud, he had no symptoms prior to Tuesday. Reynaud said the child’s death originally seemed to be caused by a heart attack but could have been caused by “anything from carbon monoxide to a birth defect.”