Feds: U.S. fatalities linked to swine flu had pre-existing problems

(CNN) - Both people who died of swine flu in the United States had pre-existing health problems, federal health authorities said Thursday in a report.

The 22-month-old child who died April 27 of the flu, also called H1N1, had neonatal myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease, said the report, which was written by a virus investigation team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published online in the New England Journal of Medicine. The child - who was from Mexico and who fell ill while visiting relatives in Texas - also had a heart defect, problems swallowing and chronic hypoxia, the report said.

The 33-year-old Texas woman who died last week was pregnant when she became ill, the article said. She had been diagnosed with asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.

The details came in a summary of the 642 confirmed cases of H1N1 infection that were diagnosed between April 15 and May 5 in 41 states among patients ranging in age from 3 months to 81 years.