Kuwait City, May 24: Kuwait has reported its first confirmed cases of influenza A/H1N1 with detecting the virus among a group of US soldiers who used the Gulf Arab state as a transit point, the state news agency has reported.
Kuwaiti health officials discovered the US soldiers were infected with the fatal flu when they arrived in Kuwait, Health Undersecretary Ibrahim Al-Abdulhadi told the official KUNA news agency.
The US soldiers were completely quarantined in their military base located in Arifjan, 70 km south of the capital city, he said, noting that the American soldiers were given appropriate medication.
The undersecretary, however, did not give the number of the infected cases.
Meanwhile, the US embassy in Kuwait confirmed the flu virus among US military personnel assigned abroad, including soldiers transiting via US military bases in Kuwait.
In a statement, the embassy said, "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."
According to the WHO`s recent tally, 11,168 cases of influenza A/H1N1 were confirmed worldwide with 86 deaths since the first suspected cases were reported in Mexico in mid-April.
IANS
