Smileband Health issues

Anyone can get scabies. It is found all over the world and the mite is transmitted by direct and prolonged skin-to-skin contact with a person who has scabies. Sexual contact is the most common way scabies is transmitted. Transmission can also happen from parents to children, particularly mother-to-infant. The mite can only survive about 48 to 72 hours without human contact, so it is uncommon, though possible, for scabies to spread through infested bedding or furniture. Animals do not spread the same types of mites that cause human scabies, so it is not possible to catch scabies from a dog or cat. The type of scabies that can infest pets is called "mange." Mange mites can spread to humans and cause minor itching and redness, but those mites cannot survive or reproduce on human skin and will die out on their own, limiting symptoms in humans. People do not need to be treated if they come into contact with mange, but dogs and cats must be treated because mange can spread and cause fur loss, and scaly and itchy skin in pets. Symptoms of scabies are usually itching (which tends to be more intense at night), and a pimple like rash. Scabies rash can appear on any part of the body, but the most common sites are wrists, elbows, armpits, the skin between the fingers and toes and around the nails, and skin usually covered by clothing such as the buttocks, belt line, nipples, and penis. Infants and young children may have scabies rash on their head, face, neck, palms, and soles.

In some patients with weakened immune systems, scabies rash may become crusted. 

Smileband Health issues

A Thai Grandmother who lives with a rare condition that causes her face to melt is refusing surgery out of fear that it will kill her.  Abnormal growths began to spread across Wiang Boonmee's face causing her to lose sight in both eyes.

The 63-year-old's melting face has also twisted her nose and mouth out of shape so that they hang off her face.  Ms Boonmee has suffered with the condition for decades after developing it as a child.

She recently moved to Bangkok where despite her growths she earns a living by selling accessories on the street in the city centre.      

Previously from rural Surin the mother-of-one has received lots of attention after medics were contacted to reqeust assisstance for her, the Mirror reported. The disease Ms Boonmee is believed to be suffering with is related to neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes tumors to form on nerve tissue But despite the severely debilating condition she refuses to be operated on because she is scared that she will die during surgery.      

Ms Booneme, who also has two grandchildren, said: 'I have had this problem for a long time. More than I can remember. I have survived and I'm healthy and have a job.

'If I have an operation I might never wake up. I'm afraid I would not survive it.

'My daughter brings me here so I can sell flowers and camphor oils. I am happy and somebody gave me a donation this week, which I'm grateful for.'

Health workers were first contacted by Praew Wattana, 22, to ask for help after spotting her in the street a few weeks before.  

Smileband Health issues

• LadyCare magnets claim to 'naturally' cure the painful symptoms of menopause, which include hot flushes, headaches and exhaustion 
• Celebrities including Belinda Carlisle have described magnet therapy as a 'miracle cure'
• The process involves clipping a magnet to women's underwear
• Health expert Dr Jen Gunter has rubbished the claims, claiming all it will do is 'lighten your wallet' and the real cause of hot flushes is 'not yet known From hot flushes to headaches and exhaustion, the menopause can bring on a whole range of unwanted symptoms. For decades, women have turned to more traditional remedies such as HRT (hormone replacement therapy), which comes in different forms including patches and tablets. 
  But a site is now offering a quirky alternative to menopausal women, in the form of a magnet which is clipped into their underwear, a product championed by singer Belinda Carlisle. 
  However top health expert Dr Jen Gunter has slammed the so-called 'natural remedy', claiming that all it will do is 'lighten your wallet', and says that the true causes of hot flushes are 'not yet understood'. Ladycare magnets retail for between £35 to £50, and clipped to the front of underwear to be worn throughout the day, designed to refocus the body's energy.
  The makers claim the magnetic therapy has relieved the symptoms for 70% of women by re-balancing their autonomic nervous system. 
  A statement on site reads: 'We believe the technology helps by reducing excessive sympathetic nervous system activity and increasing parasympathetic activity, thus restoring equilibrium and creating a healthier balance between the two parts of the ANS.
  'Menopause symptoms are the result of diminished natural hormones, which then cause an imbalance of the ANS.'
  And singer Belinda, now 59, was so impressed with the product back in 2014, that she talked to MailOnline about the instant effect it had for her. After hitting the menopause in her late forties, she experienced extreme symptoms, admitting: 'I was getting around 40 flushes a day. I would sweat so badly it would be visible on me and I had to get into the habit of taking a change of clothes with me because my blouse and jeans would be wet through.'
  But this changed when she stumbled across the little-known magnet, admitting: 'Within 48 hours, I went from having 30 to 40 hot flushes to having none at all. I felt like the old Belinda again — in fact better than that.
  'Before I started getting the menopausal symptoms, I had suffered with really bad PMS: really bad depression and I had no energy. 

Smileband Health issues

The dreaded Aussie flu outbreak expected to be the worst in 50 years has taken hold of Britain as official figures reveal cases have more than doubled in one week. Government statistics show 1,111 people were struck down with flu as temperatures dropped last week - a 156 per cent jump on the previous seven days. 

The sharp rise in cases, released by Public Health England, has been triggered by a surge in two aggressive subtypes attacking the population simultaneously.

One includes the so-called 'Aussie flu', a strain of influenza A which wreaked havoc on hospitals in Australia during the country's winter.

The H3N2 subtype triggered two and a half times the normal number of cases in Australia. Britain's flu season tends to mirror what has happened there.

Experts fear the virulent flu strain, which has now reached the UK, could prove as deadly to humanity as the Hong Kong flu in 1968, which killed one million people. Usually, just one subtype, either influenza A or B, is responsible for the majority of  cases. It spreads much easier in the cold weather.

But last week 522 cases of influenza A and 546 of influenza B were recorded across England and Wales. Some 43 cases are yet to be identified.

Some 23 people have died from the flu outbreak so far this winter, with nearly a third of fatalities having occurred last week.

However, this winter's outbreak shows no signs of slowing down, as flu cases are expected to rocket even further in the coming weeks. Cases this year are almost 10 times higher than they were at the same point in 2015, according to the PHE data. Just 132 cases were recorded then.

But in 2015, Government figures suggested that the winter flu played a part in more than 16,000 deaths. Only 577 deaths were recorded in the previous winter. 

The total recorded in week 51 is also double that of last year, when 583 cases, mainly of the H3N2 subtype, were reported. 

The sharp rise in flu is only expected to cause further problems for the NHS, with cases of the winter vomiting bug also continuing to soar. 

Some 2,117 people have been infected with norovirus since July. The figure has raised at a steady level week-on-week since October.

Nick Phin, of PHE, said: 'Flu activity, as measured by a number of different systems, has continued to increase in the last week or two. 

'This is to be expected as the season progresses and at this point the numbers are in-keeping with previous years.

'The circulating flu strains match those in the current flu vaccine, so the vaccine remains the best defence against the virus.'

The PHE figures follow repeated predictions by researchers that the flu vaccine may only be 20 per cent effective this winter - just like last year. Some experts in Australia blamed this as a reason why they suffered such a severe flu outbreak. The vaccine used in the UK will be very similar. 

The WHO creates the vaccines in March, based on which flu strains they expected to be in circulation. They are then doled out in September.

Australia - whose winter occurs during the British summer - had one of its worst outbreaks on record, with two and a half times the normal number of cases. Some of the country's A&E units had 'standing room only' after being swamped by more than 100,000 cases of the H3N2 strain.  

The elderly with their compromised immune systems are particularly susceptible, and a spike in cases among young children has also been shown.

The flu season in the UK and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere tends to mirror what has happened in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere.

The same strains of the virus will circulate north in time for the British flu season, which typically begins in November and lasts until March.

Flu viruses are constantly changing proteins on their surface to avoid detection by the body's immune system - making it more deadly.

This transformation is called an 'antigenic shift' if it's large enough, and can lead to a pandemic. This was responsible for the swine flu outbreak in 2009.

The Aussie flu is transforming quickly, but not fast enough for experts to describe it as a shift. However, it is slowly building up immunity. 

Smileband Health issues

With only 5 per cent of the world’s population, Eastern and Southern Africa is home to half the world’s population living with HIV. Today the region continues to be the epicentre of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with 48 per cent of the world’s new HIV infections among adults, 55 per cent among children, and 48 per cent of AIDS-related deaths [1]. 

The Southern Africa sub-region, in particular, experiences the most severe HIV epidemics in the world. Nine countries - Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe - have adult HIV prevalence rates of over 10 per cent. At an estimated 26.0 per cent, Swaziland has the highest HIV prevalence rate in the world, followed by Botswana (23.4 per cent) and Lesotho (23.3 per cent). With 5.6 million people living with HIV (17.3 per cent), South Africa is home to the world’s largest epidemic.

In the past 10 years, efforts to halt the spread of the epidemic by national governments and development partners have borne fruits: new infections among adults have decreased by more than 50 per cent in Botswana, Ethiopia, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe; and by more than 25 per cent in Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, and Swaziland. Among children, the number of new infections has dropped from 330,000 in 2001, to 180,000 in 2011.

Despite the progress, there are still 17.1 million adults and children living with HIV in Eastern and Southern Africa, and the figure continues to increase as antiretroviral therapy (ART) ensures millions of people with HIV can now live a healthy life. Moreover, most people on ART start treatment late, limiting the overall impact of antiretroviral medicines. 

For many pregnant women living with HIV, such treatment remains out of reach, especially for those living in rural areas, and those fearful of stigma and discrimination if they are tested positive. Of the 960,000 pregnant women living with HIV in 2011, more than 90 per cent of them resided in just nine countries - South Africa, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Ethiopia. Compared to adults, the progress in providing treatment to children is much slower. Out of the 2.2 million children who needed ART in 2011, only 33 per cent were receiving it.

The number of orphans due to AIDS continues to increase [2]. The region now has 10.5 million children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Against the mounting needs, care and support to the children made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS are nowhere near adequate. In most countries in the region, only around 20 per cent or less of these children receive some sort of external support. 

Smileband Health issues

Before you discount that persistent cough as just another part of flu season, you might want to ask your doctor to give it a second glance. According to a new study by Cancer Research U.K., more than half of adults have experienced alarm bells that could mean cancer, yet just two percent of them believed cancer could be a possible cause.

Researchers sent questionnaires to nearly 5,000 U.K. residents registered with general practitioners—in other words, men and women who have and visit a primary care doctor. Just shy of 1,800 people completed the questionnaire, and five were eliminated because they indicated they'd already been diagnosed with cancer. They asked participants if, in the last three months, they'd experienced a host of different symptoms (some of which could be possible signs of cancer), ranging from persistent coughing and unexplained weight loss to having low energy. If they had experienced any of these symptoms, they were asked to write in what they thought caused it and whether it was serious.

"We aren't sure why, but it seems there is a mismatch between what people know in practice and whether they apply the knowledge to themselves," says study co-authorKatriina Whitaker, Ph.D., senior research fellow at University College London. "So while awareness of many of these signs and symptoms is quite high, very few people mention cancer as a possible cause when it's them who is experiencing the symptom."

Here, we take a look at the 10 symptoms researchers consider to be red flags. While they could be nothing, the researchers say the point is to recognize that they could also be cancer—and to ask your doctor to check your symptoms out.

1. Persistent Cough or Hoarseness
While a cough here and there is nothing to worry about, a consistent cacophony or a cough accompanied by blood is definitely cause for concern. "Most coughs are not cancer," says Therese Bartholomew Bevers, M.D., professor of clinical cancer prevention and the medical director of the Cancer Prevention Center at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. "But certainly a persistent cough needs to be evaluated to see if it could be lung cancer." Your physician should recommend a chest X-ray or CT scan to rule out cancer as a possibility.  2. Persistent Change in Bowel Habits

When your bowel movements aren't as easy as they once were or your stool appears larger than normal or somewhat deformed, this could be a sign of colon cancer, says Bartholomew Bevers. "It could be a sign that there is a mass impeding the transit of the stool from the bowel," she says. "This is a symptom where a person should go to the doctor and schedule a colonoscopy to see if there indeed is a mass."

3. Persistent Change in Bladder Habits
"If there is blood in the urine, that could be indicative of bladder or kidney cancer—but more commonly this is a sign of a urinary tract infection," says Bartholomew Bevers. Check for an infection first, then pursue other treatment options. 

4. Persistent Unexplained Pain
"Most pain is not a sign of cancer, but persistent pain must be checked out," says Bartholomew Bevers. "If you have persistent headaches, for example, you likely don't have brain cancer—but it is still something that must be looked into. Persistent pain in the chest could be a sign of lung cancer. And pain in your abdomen could be ovarian cancer."

5. Change in the Appearance of a Mole
While not all moles are indicative of melanoma, spotting a new mark or one that has changed is something you should bring up with a dermatologist who can screen for skin cancer says Bartholomew Bevers.

Smileband Health issues

The main bones of the human skeleton are:

• The Skull - Cranium, Mandible and Maxilla
• Shoulder girdle - clavicle and scapula
• Arm - humerus, radius and ulna
• Hand - Carpals, Metacarpals and Phalanges
• Chest - Sternum and Ribs
• Spine - Cervical area (top 7 vertibrae), Thoracic (next 12), Lumbar (bottom 5 vertebrae), Sacrum (5 fused or stuck together bones) and Coccyx (the tiny bit at the bottom of the spine).
• Pelvic girdle - Ilium, Pubis and Ischium.
• Leg - Femur, Tibia and Fibula
• Ankle - Talus and calcaneus (not shown above)
• Foot - Tarsals, Metatarsals and Phalanges.   

  How are bones formed?

  • Bones are formed by the ossification of cartilage. What this really means is all bones start off as cartilage (normally in the womb) and they gradually turn to hard bone (ossification) over a period of years.
  • Calcuim is needed for strong bone growth. Read more on the structure of bone. 

  What is the function of the skeleton?

  • It provides protection to the major organs in particular the chest and rib cage.
  • Muscles attach to bones to enable movement.
  • Production of red blood cells within the bone marrow (a spongy substance in found in the cavities of long bones). Red blood cells carry oxygen around the body which is important in the production of energy.