U.S. soldier tests negative for Ebola after death at Texas base

By Jim Forsyth SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - Tests confirm that a U.S. Army soldier who had just returned from West Africa and was found dead near the Texas base where he was posted was not infected with Ebola, Fort Hood officials said late Tuesday. Army officials had been awaiting those results from more conclusive tests after an initial screening showed the soldier, identified as Specialist Kendrick Vernell Sneed, had not been infected with the deadly virus. He had been self-monitoring. "There is no evidence of a public health threat or EVD (Ebola virus disease) exposure to community or law enforcement officials involved in the current investigation of the death of a Ft. Hood soldier," post officials said in a statement. Sneed, 24, was found dead in front of his off-post home in the nearby city of Killeen early Tuesday. A cause of death was not given for Sneed, who had recently returned to Fort Hood in central Texas on emergency leave, post officials said. Sneed was from Bossier City, Louisiana and had been deployed in support of "Operation United Assistance" from October 2014 to January 2015, the Army said. A brigade from Fort Hood has been deployed in Liberia since October for the operation, which is a program to help control the Ebola outbreak in the West African country. Like other soldiers returning from West Africa, Sneed had been monitoring himself twice daily and reporting his status to medical officials, they said. (Additional reporting by Karen Brooks and Lisa Maria Garza; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Eric Walsh)