Reuters Blogs

Front Row Washington

Tracking U.S. politics

08:37 May 1st, 2009

Clinton has “mild allergies,” not new flu

Posted by: Sue Pleming
Tags: Front Row Washington, , ,

USA/U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has twice been to Mexico in recent weeks, and so when she appeared at two State Department events on Friday with a cough and apparent cold symptoms, reporters asked an obvious question.

 Did the top U.S. diplomat possibly get the new H1N1 swine flu during her trips to Mexico in late March and with U.S. President Barack Obama last month?

“You’ll be happy to know it’s just mild allergies.  She suffers from mild allergies.  That’s all it is,” said State Department spokesman Robert Wood when asked about Clinton’s health.

 Another aide said Clinton has had allergies for a long time. The flu virus has killed up to 176 people in Mexico and since spread to the United States, where there has been one death.

For more Reuters political news, click here

Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Clinton testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 30)

Post Your Comment

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture. Click on the picture to hear an audio file of the word.
Click to hear an audio file of the anti-spam word

House Rules:
  • We moderate all comments and will publish everything that advances the post directly or with relevant tangential information
  • We try not to publish comments that we think are offensive or appear to pass you off as another person, and we will be conservative if comments may be considered libelous information.