State tests show swine flu was not the cause of death for a 15-year-old Warren Central High School freshman last week, but further tests by a federal lab could change that finding and will delay an official cause-of-death ruling, Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said today.

Wesley Husband, 35 Round Alley, died Thursday at the Street Clinic on McAuley Drive. Immediate tests ruled out bacterial meningitis, which had killed a 6-year-old Dana Road Elementary first-grader five days earlier.

Novel H1N1 swine flu test samples were sent to the Mississippi Department of Health, which found no traces of the virus but sent them on to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta for more analysis.

Wesley first complained of not feeling well Aug. 21 and stayed home from school, said his grandfather, Wesley Brown. A family member took him to a clinic Monday, and Wesley returned to school and to football practice Tuesday. Tuesday night Wesley felt ill again and was taken to the emergency room at River Region Medical Center, Brown said.

Wesley’s aunt, Mary Wyatt, said the teen was treated for a sinus drainage and given a prescription for Zyrtec, an antihistamine. He stayed home from school again Wednesday, complaining of chest pain, and Wyatt took him to The Street Clinic Thursday.

She became alarmed because Wesley said on the way to the clinic that he could not see, was having trouble breathing and felt so weak he needed a wheelchair to go into the building. Once there, he seemed to slump over and stop breathing. She called attendants, who put Wesley on the floor and began “pushing on his chest,” she said.

Doctors were unable to revive him.

Preliminary autopsy results released Friday revealed symptoms of pneumonia, Huskey said, which is a common complication of influenza.

Five laboratory-confirmed cases of swine flu reveal that the virus is in Warren County, said Liz Sharlot, director of communications for the Mississippi Department of Health. Local physicians are no longer asked to send samples in for testing once the virus is confirmed in an area, she said. The health department does not attempt to track every case.

The Web site for Vicksburg Warren School District reports the number of students absent each day from reported swine flu illness. In recent days the number has hovered around 28. Cindy Nash, nurse administrator for the district, said today she is working to come up with an estimate of the total number of cases the district has seen since the beginning of school Aug. 4.

About five teachers have also had the flu, she said.

Today’s attendance reports were not available but Nash said schools were quiet with no unusual outbreaks of illness, from initial reports she had from school nurses.

Local doctors are using a rapid test to diagnose swine flu, Sharlot said. It’s reasonable to assume that doctor-reported cases are accurate because doctors are the ones treating individuals, and the H1N1 flu virus is the only one going around right now, she said.

The Dana Road first-grader who died of bacterial meningitis on Aug. 22 was V’Shanti Washington.  It is a fast-moving disease that attacks the lining of the brain. If caught in time, it is treatable. Six of V’Shanti’s classmates were determined to have come in close enough contact with her to require treatment with antibiotics.

Symptoms of H1N1 novel flu include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. A significant number of people who have been infected with this virus also have reported diarrhea and vomiting.

A vaccine for swine flu is expected to become available in October. It will be administered separately from a vaccine for seasonal flu.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com