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...
By Dr.Paul Bundi Karau I arrived at Kanyakine High School on 18th February 1999 a small village boy. I had never been to a boarding school, and certainly this is the furthest from home I had ever gone. The boys who were assigned to escort me to Mungania dorm looked at my stunted height and loudly wondered how I would survive in Beast's school. "Who is Beast?" I asked in bewilderment. "You will know." Musyoki answered curtly. It didn't take me long to know who Beast was. The following day, as the 10 o'clock tea was being served, I heard a commotion, with boys leaving their tea and running helter-skelter towards the classrooms. I was a fresh mono, so I didn't know what was happening. I ran along the pavement, and came upon a mighty man, who appeared to be adjusting his trousers. He yanked his belt and thrust one whip towards me. I had encountered Beast himself. He was tall, imposing, burly and endowed with a thunderous voice that could re...