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Official: 18 US soldiers have H1N1 in Kuwait

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-24 13:57

KUWAIT -- Eighteen US soldiers have been confirmed as the first cases in Kuwait with H1N1 flu, the undersecretary of the ministry of health said on Sunday.

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"They are 18 US soldiers that were confirmed with the virus upon their arrival from their country to the military base (in Kuwait)," Ibrahim al-Abdulhadi told Reueters.

State news agency KUNA cited a government official on Saturday as saying the new virus had been detected in an unspecified numbers of soldiers transitting through Kuwait.

They were the firs 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.