US soldiers have been confirmed as having the first cases of the H1N1 flu virus in Kuwait, the state news agency KUNA has said.
The virus was detected in an unspecified number of soldiers on their way through Kuwait. Some were quarantined in their base for treatment and some had left the country, KUNA quoted a government official as saying on Saturday.
They were the first confirmed cases in the Gulf, the world's largest oil exporting region. Kuwait is a logistics base for the US army in support of its troops in Iraq.
"The American soldiers, whose names or ages were not disclosed, arrived in Kuwait on transit, they were examined and given appropriate medication," Ibrahim al-Abdulhadi, the Kuwaiti health undersecretary, said.
The US embassy said in a statement: "We are aware that H1N1 influenza cases have been tentatively confirmed among US military personnel assigned abroad, including soldiers transiting via US military bases in Kuwait."
It added: "They have not come into any contact with the Kuwaiti population."
More details would be given at a news conference on Sunday, KUNA said.
The World Health Organisation is poised to declare a full pandemic of the H1N1 flu virus, which has infected more than 11,000 people in 42 countries and killed 86.
Is there a chance that this flu only affects people consuming pig?
No. It's an influenza virus hosted by the human population, and is transmitted like any other form of 'flu. It's rather silly blaming US soldiers, the only way any country can guarantee avoiding such a disease (which, mercifully, seems nowhere near as dangerous as people first thought it might be) is to completely seal its borders to everybody - and I doubt that has ever been successfully done in practice.
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Kuwait finds H1N1 flu in US troops
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