How often do you wash your towel? Some people wash once a week, while some, once a year. The towel is a fertile breeding ground for millions of microbes, especially those found on human skin and on the gut. No wonder the towel is one of the objects that facilitate fecal-oral contamination (literally connecting the two ends of the gut). Worse still, most people keep towels in the bathroom (near the toilet). Every flush of the toilet sends mist with millions of microbes, ranging from H.pylori, salmonella and other deadly bacteria and viruses. When you wash your hands ready for a meal, and dry them with your body towel, there's high chance you are directly ingesting your fecal matter, or, if in a shared lavatory, someone else's faeces. Unless cleaned well, viruses such as human papillomavirus (causes warts, anal cancer and cervical cancer) can be transmitted when towels are shared with infected individuals. So, what to do? 1. Launder towels once a week. 2. Use hot water and det...
Nigeria's army has posted two divisions to hunt for 200 schoolgirls abducted last month by the Boko Haram sect in an attack that has been condemned globally. The soldiers are stationed in the border region close to Chad, Cameroon and Niger to work with other security agencies, said General Chris Olukolade, spokesman for the Defence Headquarters. President Goodluck Jonathan has faced criticism for his slow response since Boko Haram militants stormed a secondary school in Chibok, near the Cameroon border, on April 14, and kidnapped the girls, who were taking exams. 50 girls have escaped, but more than 200 remain with the insurgents. Earlier this month, Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, threatened to sell the girls “in the market.” “The facilities of the Nigerian Army signals as well as all the communication facilities of the Nigerian Police and all the services have been devoted into coordinating this search,” Reuters quoted Olukolade as saying in a statement. “The major challenge remains the fact that some of the information given here turned out in many occasions to be misleading. Nevertheless, this will not discourage the collaborative efforts that are ongoing,” he said. The air force has flown more than 250 sorties, and a multinational task force has also been activated and surveillance equipment is deployed in support of 10 search teams, he added.
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