Soldier deployed to West Africa found dead at Fort Hood; tests negative for Ebola - CDC chief: Why I have hope about 2015 Ebola fight

Hazmat teams and several ambulances responded Tuesday after a soldier’s body was found in front of a home at Fort Hood in Texas.

The soldier, who was not identified, had just returned from deployment in West Africa, KWTX.com reported.

According to medical officials, the soldier was tested for Ebola and initial results came back as negative. 

The soldier had returned from Liberia with a larger group earlier this month and was in the 21-day controlled monitoring at Fort Hood, a senior defense official said. He was given permission for an emergency leave due to a family issue and was told to self-monitor twice a day, the official said.

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Soldier deployed to West Africa found dead at Fort Hood; tests negative for Ebola - CDC chief: Why I have hope about 2015 Ebola fight

Two leading Ebola vaccines appear safe, further tests starting

Sunday, January 11, 2015 | 1:58 AM    

LONDON, England (AP) — The World Health Organization says the two leading Ebola vaccines appear safe and will soon be tested in healthy volunteers in West Africa.

After an expert meeting this week, WHO said there is now enough information to conclude that the two most advanced Ebola vaccines — one made by GlaxoSmithKline and the other licensed by Merck and NewLink — have “an acceptable safety profile.”

In a press briefing on Friday, Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, who heads WHO’s Ebola vaccine efforts, said “the cupboard (for Ebola vaccines) is filling up rapidly.”

She said further trials in healthy people in West Africa, including health workers, are scheduled to start soon. Kieny added several other vaccines were being developed in the US, Russia and elsewhere.

Despite the temporary suspension of a trial of the vaccine made by NewLink and Merck in December, Kieny said there was no sign of significant side effects. That trial was put on hold while experts investigated reports of joint pain in a number of participants. It was an unexpected side effect but Kieny said it was not worrying enough to stop the vaccine’s development. No such side effects have been reported with the other vaccine.

The next phase of trials will likely take about six months and manufacturers will ramp up their production at the same time, meaning millions of doses could be available later this year. It’s unclear if that will be quick enough to help slow the epidemic, which appears to be on the decline. So far, Ebola is believed to have sickened more than 20,000 people and killed about 8,000, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Officials estimate the death rate to be about 71 per cent.

“We will have to take stock when we have the vaccines,” said Helen Rees of the University of Witwatersrand, who chaired the WHO meeting. She said experts would have to consider at that point whether it’s useful to vaccinate entire populations or focus only on high-risk groups.

Dr Peter Piot, the co-discoverer of the Ebola virus, said he was concerned there might be too few cases to prove the vaccines worked. Still, he said every option should be pursued to stop the world’s biggest-ever outbreak of Ebola.

“With Ebola, you need to find every last case and stop all transmission,” he said. “It may be that we won’t be able to do that without a vaccine,” Piot said.

GAVI, a private-public vaccine alliance, has pledged to spend US$300 million on WHO-recommended Ebola vaccines, which it estimates could translate into 12 million doses.

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Two leading Ebola vaccines appear safe, further tests starting

Brazil Ebola case tests negative

11 October 2014 Last updated at 14:27 Brazilian authorities sent an Air Force plane to pick Mr Bah up from Cascavel Brazil says a Guinean man who had been suspected of having Ebola has tested negative for the disease.

The man arrived in the country on Thursday and had been quarantined.

Souleymane Bah went to a public health centre in the town of Cascavel in the southern state of Parana after suffering a fever.

He was flown to the National Institute of Infectology in Rio de Janeiro but fears he was the country’s first case of Ebola infection proved unfounded.

Health Minister Arthur Chioro said “all health protocols and procedures were applied efficiently and with great success”.

Guinea is one of the three West African countries most affected by Ebola.

Mr Bah’s symptoms appeared on the 20th day after he left Guinea – within the 21-day incubation period. He no longer has the fever.

Mr Bah arrived in Brazil as a refugee and was granted leave to remain until 2015 by immigration police.

Sixty-four people who came into contact with Mr Bah, mostly in the health centre in Parana, were monitored for symptoms of Ebola.

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Brazil Ebola case tests negative

Passing IMF tests creates economic stability - Finance Minister

Saturday, September 27, 2014 | 7:06 AM    

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Finance and Planning Minister, Dr Peter Phillips, says that passing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) tests creates stability in the Jamaican economy.

According to Dr Phillips passing the tests means that Jamaica is meeting its targets in instituting key economic reforms, enabling the country to draw-down on funds to promote growth and employment.

Dr Phillips, who was speaking in an interview with JIS News, acknowledged that there are difficulties, but noted that, “I can tell you if we were not passing these tests, life would be tremendously worse.

He said that before Jamaica successfully negotiated the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with the IMF financing from external entities and investments were low.

“Since then, we’ve had in excess of a billion US (United States) dollars worth of private investments, we’ve had access to loan funds, we have been able to build up our reserves so that if there is a hurricane or crisis of some other sort, we would be able to deal with it,” Dr Phillips explained.

Jamaica has so far successfully passed all five IMF tests under the four-year EFF with the multilateral agency as part of its Economic Reform Programme.

He said that in excess of 30,000 jobs have been added to the economy in the past year, mostly in the areas of tourism, information and communications technology, and agriculture, which mainly benefitted persons in rural parishes.

He said that efforts are being placed on creating more jobs, especially in other sectors, to benefit more Jamaicans.

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Passing IMF tests creates economic stability - Finance Minister

Costa Rica complains to FIFA about excessive dope tests

Sunday, June 22, 2014 | 11:03 AM    

SANTOS, Brazil (AP) — Costa Rica’s football federation has sent a letter to FIFA demanding an explanation for why so many of its players were required to submit to anti-doping controls after a surprise victory over Italy.

Seven Costa Rica players were tested after Friday’s 1-0 win, angering team officials who say it could lead to people believing that football’s world governing body suspects Costa Ricans of doping.

The president of Costa Rica’s selection committee, Adrian Gutierrez, said: “We believe in, accept and trust doping controls that FIFA carries out, but we want an explanation as to why so many of the players were called in.” Gutierrez says it gives an “image of suspicion that Costa Rican players are doping.”

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Costa Rica complains to FIFA about excessive dope tests

Positive tests difficult for athletics, says Lamine Diack

Sport

Friday, July 19, 2013

MONTE CARLO, Monaco (AFP) — Tyson Gay’s positive drugs test was “terrible” news, according to Lamine Diack, head of track and field’s world governing body, the IAAF.Gay, the second fastest sprinter ever, and Jamaican ex-world record holder Asafa Powell, the fourth fastest, were revealed as having failed doping tests last week.“I know the two of them well, they’re two great guys,” said Diack. “I know Asafa well, it’s a catastrophe for me.“And to see that Tyson was positive was terrible for me because I know the boy and I had occasion to talk to him and his mother after Osaka (where the American won triple sprint gold).“We took the same plane and spent about 10 hours together, we discussed how we see our sport, what his role is as a role model. What happened, we’ll see, I’m waiting to find out.”The positive tests, Diack continued, “were really harmful to our sport, especially two at such a high level”.“This is very difficult for our sport. Someone could write a book about what’s going on: is the performance really acceptable or not? But I think that’s wrong.“We’re doing thousands and thousands and thousands of tests in and out of competition.”But he said the media were partly to blame: “We have 1,000 tests and 50 positives, and the 50 positives are news, the 950 negative are not news.“We will do our best to catch the cheaters.”

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Positive tests difficult for athletics, says Lamine Diack