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(The Fayetteville Observer) – BREAKING NEWS – About 18 people on U.S. military bases in Kuwait have tested positive for swine flu, a U.S. Central Command spokeswoman said.
They are the first cases reported in Kuwait. It remains unclear whether the virus has spread to the civilian population.
The names and units of the infected people were not immediately available.
Maj. Kristi Beckman, speaking from Central Command headquarters in Tampa, said everyone who tested positive for the virus was quarantined in military health facilities approved by officials from the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health.
Kuwait is used as a staging area for soldiers heading to or from the war in Iraq.
On April 28, the Kuwait Times newspaper reported that the country was free of the virus.
The country is aggressively screening anyone arriving in Kuwait to prevent the virus from entering the country. Anyone who exhibits symptoms of the illness is immediately isolated and tested using WHO and Centers for Disease Control guidelines.
The World Health Organization said Friday that H1N1 influenza has infected 11,168 people in 42 countries and caused 86 deaths. Kuwait was not on its list of countries where the virus is present.
You don’t want to have the virus among US troops in a warzone
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."