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Swine-flu death confirmed
08:30 AM EST on Thursday, November 5, 2009
The state Health Department has confirmed that the middle-aged woman who died Monday had swine flu, and swine flu was the cause of death.
The woman, who was taken to Rhode Island Hospital over the weekend, was identified by her family as Leslee P. Silvia, 49. Silvia was born in Newport, grew up in Middletown, and was living in Riverside in East Providence at the time of her death. She had several underlying illnesses that made her vulnerable to the flu.
She was one of nine children, including the late Lance Cpl. James Francis Silvia, who died in the 1983 bombing of Marine headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete.
Silvia was the sixth Rhode Islander to die of swine flu.
Felice J. Freyer
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