smileband health topics

Article written by Stephen Matthew, 

A man with a severe skin condition that has ravaged his face has revealed how cruel strangers are 'scared' of him. Dean Clifford, 38, from Queensland, has defied doctors who warned he wouldn't survive past the age of five because he has the most serious form of Epidermolysis Bullosa.

But, despite overcoming the odds to become the oldest living survivor in the world, he has faced years of ridicule for his appearance.

The rare, genetic condition causes him to have incredibly fragile skin, which blisters frequently and takes much longer than usual to heal itself.

But, despite the challenges he faces, he has transformed himself from a physically weak and sick child to a bodybuilder and motivational speaker.

Mr Clifford, who also works as a business and marketing officer, has today opened up about his condition, which strikes one in 50,000 people, for the first time.

He said: 'The way I describe it to people I meet is my skin is basically as strong as tissue paper or strong as butterfly wings. 

<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-109237959-1"></script>

<script>

  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];

  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}

  gtag('js', new Date());

  gtag('config', 'UA-109237959-1');

</script>     

<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) -->

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XDGJVZXVQ4"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-XDGJVZXVQ4'); </script>

  

smileband general news

Article was written by Alexandra Robertson,  

A gang of women who killed an Egyptian student in a suspected race attack had abused her in the street months earlier, it has been claimed. The mother of Mariam Moustafa says her daughter had been assaulted by the same thugs four months before but police in Nottingham 'did nothing'.

Mariam, 18, was left in a coma after being jumped by the group of female yobs outside a shopping centre while she waited for a bus on February 20.

The teenager had been shopping in Nottingham city centre before she was repeatedly assaulted by the women in an unprovoked attack on Parliament Street.

The engineering student was rushed to Nottingham City Hospital and placed in an induced coma but died on Wednesday.

Her family believe she was targeted in a racially-motivated attack by a group of women who had previously hurled abuse at her in the street.

According to an Egyptian newspaper, Moustafa's mother Nessrin Shehata posted a video on social media saying: 'Four months ago, two of the same ten women abused my daughter in the street with no specific reason.

'We went to the police station and issued an official complaint; however, nothing happened'.

She added that when the women saw her in the street walking alone, they attacked her once again and dragged her about several feet in the street.

Nessrin told Egypt Today: 'She managed to get up and run towards one of the buses, but they went after her and started to beat her again.

'Just one man tried to defend her, but no one else tried to interfere'.

A 17-year-old girl was arrested on suspicion of assault occasioning grievous bodily harm and was subsequently released on conditional bail.

A Home Office post-mortem examination is due to take place.

Mariam, who was a Central College engineering student in Beeston, is understood to have suffered a bleed on the brain as well as a stroke during the attack.

She was reportedly punched several times before she was further verbally assaulted after getting onto the number 27 bus. <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-109237959-1"></script>

<script>

  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];

  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}

  gtag('js', new Date());

  gtag('config', 'UA-109237959-1');

</script>

<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) -->

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XDGJVZXVQ4"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-XDGJVZXVQ4'); </script>

smileband general news

Article written by Saqib Shah, 

A SILICON Valley billionaire is paying the ultimate price for the chance of immortality — death.

Well that, and a spare $AU12,686.

Entrepreneur Sam Altman is one of 25 people who have splashed the cash to join a waiting list at Nectome — a start-up that promises to upload your brain into a computer to grant eternal life to your consciousness. The method is “100 per cent fatal”, claims the company.

“The user experience will be identical to physician-assisted suicide,” Nectome’s co-founder Robert McIntyre revealed to the publication.

“Our mission is to preserve your brain well enough to keep all its memories intact: from that great chapter of your favourite book to the feeling of cold winter air, baking an apple pie, or having dinner with your friends and family,” writes Nectome on its site.

“We believe that within the current century it will be feasible to digitise this information and use it to recreate your consciousness.”

The reality, however, is that physician-assisted suicide is currently only legal in five out of 50 US states, and individuals seeking it must have a terminal illness, as well as a prognosis of six months or less to live. <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-109237959-1"></script>

<script>

  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];

  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}

  gtag('js', new Date());

  gtag('config', 'UA-109237959-1');

</script>

1. <!-- Google tag (gtag.js) -->

   <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XDGJVZXVQ4"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-XDGJVZXVQ4'); </script>
2. 
   

smileband health topics

Article written by cheyenne roundtree,  

A Tesco delivery driver has won a legal battle with the supermarket after contracting a potentially fatal disease believed to have been caused by handling items soaked in rat urine. Darren Finn, 42, is lucky to be alive after he was hospitalised with Weil's disease which spread through his body turning his skin 'Homer Simpson yellow' as his kidneys began to fail.

Doctors believe the lorry driver contracted the disease through a minor cut on his eye after handling empty packaging and food waste while carrying out deliveries from the now-closed Harlow, Essex, depot.

The father-of-two was admitted to hospital on November 15, 2012, where doctors treated him for kidney failure, jaundice and loss of liver function while they struggled to establish what had caused his body to go into near-fatal shutdown.

It wasn't until five days later that test results finally pinpointed Weil's disease.

Mr Finn, who now works for logistics company DHL, has received a five figure settlement after Tesco ended a five-year legal battle, prior to trial. Tesco said they take health and safety issues on their sites very seriously.

Mr Finn, a former Tesco employee from Harlow, Essex, said: 'I honestly believe if I hadn't gone to hospital when I did, I wouldn't be here now.

'After two weeks of battling extreme flu-like symptoms my eyes and skin both turned a violent shade of yellow and I could barely walk.

'By the time I arrived in hospital it felt like every part of my body was bruised and my head was going to explode with the pain.

'If I had waited another day to go to hospital the disease would have spread to my heart and lungs. <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-109237959-1"></script>

<script>

  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];

  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}

  gtag('js', new Date());

  gtag('config', 'UA-109237959-1');

</script>

<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) -->

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XDGJVZXVQ4"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-XDGJVZXVQ4'); </script>

Smileband general news

Article written by Sara Malm,  

These haunting images of a 14-year-old Polish girl who was murdered by Nazis in Auschwitz in 1943, have come to life through the work of a Brazilian artist. Czesława Kwoka was photographed by a fellow prisoner as part of a project by Auschwitz-Birkenau officials to 'document' those taken to the death camp, just moments after being beaten up by a female prison guard.

Now, 75 years later, artist Marina Amaral painstakingly colourised Miss Kwoka's portraits, down to the blood on her busted lip. Miss Kwoka was deported from her home in Zamość, southeastern Poland in December 1942, along with her mother, to make room for a German colony that the Nazis were building.

They were deemed 'political prisoners', and her categorization can be seen on her prisoner's uniform which has a red triangle with a 'P'.

The photographs show her on the verge of tears, her bottom lip sporting a cut.

Shortly before the photos were taken, she had been beaten up by a female prison guard for not understanding orders being barked at her in German. <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-109237959-1"></script>

<script>

  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];

  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}

  gtag('js', new Date());

  gtag('config', 'UA-109237959-1');

</script>

<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) -->

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XDGJVZXVQ4"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-XDGJVZXVQ4'); </script>

Smileband health topics

Article written by idaz medical, 

Pneumocystis pneumonia is a fungal infection caused by Pneumocystis jirovecii which is one of the most common opportunistic fungal infections. Symptoms can include fever, dry cough, shortness of breath and fatigue. In individuals with HIV or weakened immune systems the infection presents sub-acutely and they will have a low-grade fever. In HIV-unifected patients the symptoms will include a high fever and the infection will develop more quickly.

 

Transmission

Transmission is unknown but there is some evidence to suggest that transmission in humans in airborne.

Incubation period is unknown.

Lab Tests & Specimen Info

Test*	Specimen
Microscopic examination	Sputum, Bronchoalveolar Lavage, Lung Biopsy, Transbronchial Biopsy
PCR	Sputum, Bronchial Washing, Bronchoalveolar Lavage, Body Fluids

 Isolation Precautions

Standard precautions are recommended in healthcare settings. 

Prevention for Patients
Pneumocystis pneumonia is a very rare infection that usually only affects individuals who are immunocomprised. 

For those individuals at high risk, chemoprophylaxis may be recommended. <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-109237959-1"></script>

<script>

  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];

  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}

  gtag('js', new Date());

  gtag('config', 'UA-109237959-1');

</script>

<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) -->

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XDGJVZXVQ4"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-XDGJVZXVQ4'); </script>

Smileband general news

Article written by Ruth Lythe,  

Large cash payments to tradesmen could be banned in a crackdown on the black economy. Plumbers, builders and even child-minders could be barred from receiving sizable payments to ensure they pay the full tax for the work they carry out.

The proposals, published in the Spring Statement yesterday, are a bid to rake in as much as £3.5billion a year in tax from the UK’s hidden economy. Another suggestion is that receipts could be made compulsory across Britain – forcing workmen to write down any payments received.

But business experts warned that the Government must not launch measures that would see innocent businesses unable to use cash when needed.

Cash-in-hand payments are considered a scourge by tax officials, who believe some workers are flouting the system.

Any income received for work carried out should be taxed at someone’s individual tax rate – even babysitting.

But it is common for many tradesman to accept a cash payment for a certain amount of the work they carry out in exchange for a slightly cheaper deal. This suits the customers, as they get money off, but also the tradesman who can avoid tax.

In 2015, former shadow chancellor Ed Balls came under fire for suggesting people should get a written receipt for all transactions.

The Labour politician said he always asked for a written record because it was the ‘right thing to do’. <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-109237959-1"></script>

<script>

  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];

  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}

  gtag('js', new Date());

  gtag('config', 'UA-109237959-1');

</script>

<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) -->

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XDGJVZXVQ4"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-XDGJVZXVQ4'); </script>