A Kuwaiti health official informed on Sunday that the 18 swine flu affected U. S. soldiers had recovered and left.

These were the first cases of H1N1 influenza in the Gulf Arab oil-exporting region, a government official said on Sunday.

"(The troops) were confirmed with the virus upon their arrival from their country to the military base (in Kuwait)," said Ibrahim al-Abdulhadi.

On Saturday, KUNA had quoted a government official as saying that the virus had been detected in some of the U. S. soldiers passing through Kuwait.

"We are aware that H1N1 influenza cases have been tentatively confirmed among U. S. military personnel assigned abroad, including soldiers transiting via U. S. military bases in Kuwait," the U. S. embassy said in a statement on KUNA.

According to the World Health Organization, globally, there have been 12,022 cases of Swine flu which has caused around 86 deaths in 42 countries. More than half of these cases have been detected in the U. S. while most of the deaths have occurred in Mexico where this virus had first been detected last month.

(via TopNews Arab Emirates. Contributed by Kamilah Qasimi)