Government News – Page 2

Fort Hood soldier back from West Africa found dead

Written on January 13, 2015. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Government News, Health News, USA News.

A Fort Hood soldier who had just returned from West Africa was found dead Tuesday outside his off-post residence. It wasn’t clear how the 24-year-old GI, who was not identified by name, had died but there were no outward signs that he took his own life or was a victim of violence, said Killeen police spokeswoman Carroll Smith. Tyler Broadway, a Fort Hood spokesman, said he was not sure if his death was connected to the Ebola virus. A Killeen...

Sierra Leone declares first Ebola Free district

Written on January 12, 2015. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Government News, Health News, Treatments, World News.

A district in Sierra Leone has been declared Ebola-free, the first to be given the all-clear after 42 days with zero recorded cases of the virus. Pujehun, in the south-east of the country, was hit by Ebola in August and suffered 24 deaths from 31 cases – but it has not had a recorded case since 26 November. This means it has achieved the World Health Organization’s benchmark for Ebola-free status. As the fight against the deadly Ebola Virus disease...

U.S. Soldiers sent to fight Ebola quarantined for 21 days

Written on January 7, 2015. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Government News, USA News.

More than 100 Fort Carson soldiers are taking online classes while they wait out a three-week quarantine that welcomed them back from Liberia, where they spent seven weeks helping locals tackle that nation’s Ebola epidemic. The 615th Engineer Company soldiers came home months ahead of schedule because Liberia had more Ebola-fighting resources than Defense and State Department officials anticipated. They were sent to Joint Base Lewis-McChord...

Sierra Leone’s president calls for week of fasting, prayer over Ebola

Written on January 1, 2015. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Government News, Health News, World News.

(Reuters) – Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma asked the country to begin a week of fasting and prayers on Thursday to end the Ebola virus that has killed more than 2,700 of his countrymen. The worst outbreak on record of the virus is still spreading in West Africa, especially in Sierra Leone, and the number of known cases globally has exceeded 20,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. In a New Year’s Day...

Liberia lifts curfew for New Year’s Eve

Written on December 31, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Government News, Health News, World News.

(BBC News) Worshippers should avoid over-crowding and touching to prevent contagion, the deputy information minister said. Health agencies did not comment directly on the one-night suspension, but warned against complacency. Liberia’s government had hoped for an Ebola-free Christmas, but the disease has continued to claim lives. The virus has killed nearly 8,000 people, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, where it was first identified...

Ebola-Stricken Families to Receive Cash Payments

Written on December 22, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Business News, Featured, Government News, Health News, World News.

In 2015, the three Ebola-affected countries will start offering cash payments for families hit by Ebola, as well as survivors having trouble re-acclimating to society out of stigma for the disease. Every aspect of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone’s societies have taken a hit from Ebola, and the disease has shocked what were once fragile but growing economies. Public spaces are now forbidden, so markets are empty, tourists are no longer traveling...

Spending cuts blamed for Ebola outbreak in West Africa

Written on December 22, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Government News, Health News, World News.

It had led to “under-funded, insufficiently staffed, and poorly prepared health systems” in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, they said. The IMF denied the allegation. The deadliest Ebola outbreak ever has so far killed more than 7,300 people, mostly in the three states. “A major reason why the Ebola outbreak spread so rapidly was the weakness of healthcare systems in the region, and it would be unfortunate if underlying causes...

Officials threaten arrest over unsafe Ebola burial practices

Written on December 22, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Government News, Health News, Personal Safety.

(VOA News) With Ebola having killed more than 2,000 people in Sierra Leone, and unsafe burial practices possibly being responsible for up to 70 percent of new infections, officials said they are resorting to increasingly desperate measures to clamp down on traditional burials in the country. Officials have even threatened to jail people – once it’s clear they have not caught the disease – who prepare the corpses of their loved...

UN chief urges respect for Ebola health rules

Written on December 19, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Government News, Health News, World News.

(Reuters) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, starting a visit to Ebola-hit states in West Africa on Friday, urged their people to set aside traditional practices like washing the dead by hand so as to help end an epidemic that has killed nearly 7,000 people. Ban said he hoped to use his two-day tour of the region – his first since the outbreak was detected in March – to raise the profile of the fight against the disease and to...

UN Chief Heading to West Africa to See Ebola Response

Written on December 18, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Government News, Health News, World News.

(By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press) The UN chief will leave Wednesday night and visit hard-hit Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea as well as Mali. He will also visit Ghana, where the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response is headquartered. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday he’s heading to West Africa to demonstrate the U.N.’s solidarity with the countries most affected by the Ebola outbreak and to see for himself how...