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What to Do To Have A Clear And Healthy Skin

When thinking of how to have a healthy and clear skin should cosmetics
be the first option?

The truth is that your "inner condition will always reflect in your
"skin condition". Nutrition, Hormones and Stress are major factors
that determine what your skin will look like.

Here are necessary action steps to achieve and maintain a clear and
healthy skin:

1) Don't allow yourself to get stressed. Learn to relax through prayer
and meditation. Accumulation of Stress hormones result in toxic
biproducts and free radicals. This eventually results in dull looking
skin and break outs.


2) Drink enough water. Water is a good cleanser for the body system
helping the skin regeneration process.

3) Get adequate sleep. The body gets the opportunity to rejuvenate
itself while we are asleep and this includes the skin. So try to get
up to 8hrs of sleep daily along with a regular sleep pattern.

4) Eat nutritious foods. Reduce or possibly eliminate your junk food
intake. Eat a well balanced meal three times a day and snack on fruits
or vegetables.

5) You may take vitamin supplements which can be recommended by your physician.

6) Use a mild cleanser with 2% salicylic acid to clean your skin
properly. This has been proven to be very efficient in ridding excess
oils while maintaining proper hydration and pH. The slight acidity
will keep bacteria at bay.

7) Avoid smoking. If you do, work on quitting. Smoking not just ages
your body system internally but also your skin. It has been observed
that smoking can add up 10 years to the look of your skin.

8) Use a sunscreen. Using a sunscreen supports the skin's Keratonin
to protect you from against the sun's UV rays. Some experts recommend
an SPF (sun protection factor) of 40.

9) Go for a spa treatment atleast once a year. Skin peels, TCA peels,
deep tissue massage, complete relaxation, aromatherapy, etc… will all
energize and heal your skin. TCA peels will actual improve your skins
ability to regenerate itself and improve collagen levels.

Talking to Kids and Teens About Social Media and Sexting

Social Media

Today's teens and tweens are connected to one another, and to the
world, via digital technology  more than any previous generation.
Recent data suggests that social media venues like Facebook and
Twitter have surpassed e-mail as the preferred method of communication
in all age groups. While today's tweens and teens may be more
digitally savvy than their parents, their lack of maturity and life
experience can quickly get them into trouble with these new social
venues.  For this reason, it is imperative that parents talk with
their children of all ages about social media and monitor their online
social media use to help them navigate this new online social world.
How parents talk with their kids and teens will vary slightly by age
depending on the topic being discussed. These tips will help you start
that journey with your family.

Learn about these technologies first hand. There is simply no better
way than to have a profile yourself. It will also enable you to
"friend" your kids and monitor them on line.

Let them know that their use of technology is something you want and
need to know about.

For kids of all ages, ask daily: "Have you used the computer and the
Internet today?"

Technology use will vary by age. Tweens are likely to be using more
instant messaging and texting, while teens use those technologies and
also networking sites such as Facebook. (These tools often are
referred to as "platforms" for social networking.) Ask daily how your
family used those tools with questions such as: "What did you write on
Facebook today?" "Any new chats recently?" "Anyone text you today?"

Share a bit about your daily social media use as a way to facilitate
daily conversation about your kids' online habits.

Get your kids talking about their social media lives if you can just
so you know what they are doing.

Keep the computer in  a public part of your home, such as the family
room or kitchen, so that you can check on what your kids are doing
online and how much time they are spending there.

Talk with other parents about what their kids of similar ages are
using for social media. Ask your kids about those technologies as a
starting point for discussion. If they are in the same peer group,
there is a good chance they are all using the same platforms together.
For example:

For teens: "Mrs. Smith told me Jennifer uses Facebook. Is that
something you've thought of doing? Do you already have a profile? If
so, I'd like to see it."

For tweens and older elementary school kids: "Are you planning on
meeting up with kids on Club Penguin today? I'd love to see how that
works." Or, "Let's look at your text log today together. I'd like to
see who's been texting you."

For all ages, emphasize that everything sent over the Internet or a
cell phone can be shared with the entire world, so it is important
they use good judgment in sending messages and pictures and set
privacy settings on social media sites appropriately.

Discuss with kids of every age what "good judgment" means and the
consequences of poor judgment, ranging form minor punishment to
possible legal action in the case of "sexting" (see below) or
bullying.

Remember to make a point of discouraging kids from gossiping,
spreading rumors, bullying or damaging someone's reputation using
texting or other tools.

To keep kids safe, have your kids and teens show you where the privacy
features are for every social media venue they are using. The more
private, the less likely inappropriate material will be received by
your child, or sent to their circle of acquaintances.

Be aware of the ages of use for sites your tweens and older elementary
school kids want to use.  Many sites are for age 13 and older, and the
sites for younger kids do require parental consent to use.

Be sure you are where your kids are online: IM, Facebook, Twitter,
etc.  Have a policy requiring that you and your child "friend" each
other. This is one way of showing your child you are there, too, and
will provide a check and balance system by having an adult within
arm's reach of their profile. This is important for kids of all ages,
including teens.

Show your kids you know how to use what they are using, and are
willing to learn what you may not know how to do.

Create a strategy for monitoring your kids' online social media use,
and be sure you follow through. Some families may check once a week
and others more sporadically. You may want to say "Today I'll be
checking your computer and cell phone."  The older your kids are, the
more often you may need to check.

Consider formal monitoring systems to track your child's email, chat,
IM and image content. Parental controls on your computer or from your
Internet service provider, Google Desktop or commercial programs are
all reasonable alternatives.

Set time limits for Internet and cell phone use. Learn the warning
signs of trouble: skipping activities, meals and homework for social
media; weight loss or gain; a drop in grades. If these issues are
occurring due to your child being online when they should be eating,
sleeping, participating in school or social activities, your child may
have a problem with Internet or social media addiction. Contact your
pediatrician for advice if any of these symptoms are occurring.

Check chat logs, emails, files and social networking profiles for
inappropriate content, friends, messages, and images periodically.  Be
transparent and let your kids know what you are doing.

Multitasking can be dangerous--even deadly. Be sure to stress to teens
the importance of not texting, Facebooking, using the phone, listening
to ear buds or earphones, or engaging in similarly distracting
activities while driving. These forms of distracted driving are
illegal in many states because they are so dangerous. And caution kids
of all ages about using mobile devices while walking, biking,
babysitting or doing other things that require their full attention.

 The Problem of "Sexting"

"Sexting" refers to sending a text message with pictures of children
or teens that are inappropriate, naked or engaged in sex acts.
According to a recent survey, about 20 percent of teen boys and girls
have sent such messages. The emotional pain it causes can be enormous
for the child in the picture as well as the sender and receiver--often
with legal implications. Parents must begin the difficult conversation
about sexting before there is a problem and introduce the issue as
soon as a child is old enough to have a cell phone. Here are some tips
for how to begin these conversations with your children:

Talk to your kids, even if the issue hasn't directly impacted your
community. "Have you heard of sexting?" "Tell me what you think it
is." For the initial part of the conversation, it is important to
first learn what your child's understanding is of the issue and then
add to it an age appropriate explanation (see next bullet).

Use examples appropriate for your child's age. For younger children
with cell phones who do not yet know about sex, alert them that text
messages should never contain pictures of people--kids or
adults--without their clothes on, kissing or touching each other in
ways that they've never seen before. For older children, use the term
"sexting" and give more specifics about sex acts they may know about.
For teens, be very specific that "sexting" often involves pictures of
a sexual nature and is considered pornography.

Make sure kids of all ages understand that sexting is serious and
considered a crime in many jurisdictions. In all communities, if they
"sext", there will be serious consequences, quite possibly involving
the police, suspension from school, and notes on the sexter's
permanent record that could hurt their chances of getting into college
or getting a job.

Experts have noted that peer pressure can play a major role in the
sending of texts, with parties being a major contributing factor.
Collecting cell phones at gatherings of tweens and teens is one way to
reduce this temptation.

Monitor headlines and the news for stories about "sexting" that
illustrate the  very real consequences for both senders and receivers
of these images. "Have you seen this story?" "What did you think about
it?" "What would you do if you were this child?" Rehearse ways they
can respond if asked to participate in inappropriate texting.

Encourage school and town assemblies to educate parents, teachers and students.

Source: American Academy of Paediatrics
(http://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/news-features-and-safety-tips/Pages/Talking-to-Kids-and-Teens-About-Social-Media-and-Sexting.aspx)

First hint of 'life after death' in Biggest ever Scientific Study

The largest ever medical study into near-death and out-of-body
experiences has discovered that some awareness may continue even after
the brain has shut down completely.

It is a controversial subject which has, until recently, been treated
with widespread scepticism.

But scientists at the University of Southampton have spent four years
examining more than 2,000 people who suffered cardiac arrests at 15
hospitals in the UK, US and Austria.

And they found that nearly 40 per cent of people who survived
described some kind of 'awareness' during the time when they were
clinically dead before their hearts were restarted.

One man even recalled leaving his body entirely and watching his
resuscitation from the corner of the room.

Despite being unconscious and 'dead' for three minutes, the
57-year-old social worker from Southampton, recounted the actions of
the nursing staff in detail and described the sound of the machines.

"We know the brain can't function when the heart has stopped beating,"
said Dr Sam Parnia, a former research fellow at Southampton
University, now at the State University of New York, who led the
study.

"But in this case, conscious awareness appears to have continued for
up to three minutes into the period when the heart wasn't beating,
even though the brain typically shuts down within 20-30 seconds after
the heart has stopped.

"The man described everything that had happened in the room, but
importantly, he heard two bleeps from a machine that makes a noise at
three minute intervals. So we could time how long the experienced
lasted for.

"He seemed very credible and everything that he said had happened to
him had actually happened."

Of 2060 cardiac arrest patients studied, 330 survived and 140 said
they had experienced some kind of awareness while being resuscitated.

Although many could not recall specific details, some themes emerged.
One in five said they had felt an unusual sense of peacefulness while
nearly one third said time had slowed down or speeded up.

Some recalled seeing a bright light; a golden flash or the Sun
shining. Others recounted feelings of fear or drowning or being
dragged through deep water. 13 per cent said they had felt separated
from their bodies and the same number said their sensed had been
heightened.

Dr Parnia believes many more people may have experiences when they are
close to death but drugs or sedatives used in the process of
rescuitation may stop them remembering.

"Estimates have suggested that millions of people have had vivid
experiences in relation to death but the scientific evidence has been
ambiguous at best.

"Many people have assumed that these were hallucinations or illusions
but they do seem to corresponded to actual events.

"And a higher proportion of people may have vivid death experiences,
but do not recall them due to the effects of brain injury or sedative
drugs on memory circuits.

"These experiences warrant further investigation. "

Dr David Wilde, a research psychologist and Nottingham Trent
University, is currently compiling data on out-of-body experiences in
an attempt to discover a pattern which links each episode.

He hopes the latest research will encourage new studies into the
controversial topic.

"Most studies look retrospectively, 10 or 20 years ago, but the
researchers went out looking for examples and used a really large
sample size, so this gives the work a lot of validity.

"There is some very good evidence here that these experiences are
actually happening after people have medically died.

"We just don't know what is going on. We are still very much in the
dark about what happens when you die and hopefully this study will
help shine a scientific lens onto that."

The study was published in the journal Resuscitation.

Dr Jerry Nolan, Editor-in-Chief at Resuscitation said: "Dr Parnia and
his colleagues are to be congratulated on the completion of a
fascinating study that will open the door to more extensive research
into what happens when we die."

(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/11144442/First-hint-of-life-after-death-in-biggest-ever-scientific-study.html)

What Texas can learn from Nigeria when it comes to containing Ebola

As devastating reports continue to stream out of West Africa, where
the deadly virus has overwhelmed already weak public health systems
and left thousands of people dead, and anxiety grips the United States
over the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the country, one nation
serves as an example of hope: Nigeria, which appears to have
successfully contained Ebola.

Concerns spread over U.S. hospital readiness, there are some lessons
to be learned from Nigeria, where officials managed to get ahead of
the fast-moving virus after it was brought into Africa's most populous
country by an Ebola-infected man who'd flown into Lagos. This week,
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the
outbreak could be coming to an end in Nigeria, with no new Ebola cases
since Aug. 31.

As in the U.S. case, Ebola arrived in Nigeria by passenger plane. But
unlike Thomas Eric Duncan — who arrived in Dallas before he became
symptomatic and was therefore not contagious during his flights from
Liberia to Texas through Brussels and Dulles International Airport —
Patrick Sawyer was already symptomatic when he landed in Lagos on July
20. At that point, Sawyer, Nigeria's Patient Zero, was contagious and
dying.

It was a nightmare scenario with the potential to spiral out of
control, given the bustling city of Lagos, Africa's largest, is a
major transportation hub. As Sawyer was placed in isolation, public
health officials had to track down every single person who'd come into
contact with him, from the flights he'd boarded to the Lagos airport
and the private hospital where he went after landing. And they had to
do so quickly, making the process known as contact tracing a priority.

"In the whole system approach in beating the war on Ebola, contact
tracing is the key public health activity that needs to be done," said
Gavin MacGregor-Skinner, who helped with the Ebola response in Nigeria
with the Elizabeth R. Griffin Research Foundation. "The key is to find
all the people that patient had direct close contact with."

From that single patient came a list of 281 people, MacGregor-Skinner
said. Every one of those individuals had to provide health authorities
twice-a-day updates about their well-being, often through methods like
text-messaging. Anyone who didn't feel well or failed to respond was
checked on, either through a neighborhood network or health workers.

Nigeria took a "whole community approach," with everyone from military
officials to church elders in the same room, discussing how to handle
the response to the virus, MacGregor-Skinner said.

Such an approach, and contact tracing in general, requires people be
open and forthright about their movements and their health, he said.
Stigmatization of patients, their families and contacts could only
discourage that, so Nigerian officials sent a message to "really make
them look like heroes," MacGregor-Skinner said.

"This is the best thing people can do for Nigeria: They are going to
protect and save Nigeria by being honest, by doing what they need to
do, by reporting to the health commission," he said. This made people
feel like they were a part of something extremely important, he said,
and also took into account real community needs. "You got real
engagement and compliance from the contacts. They're not running and
hiding."

Sawyer had come into contact with someone who ended up in Port
Harcourt. That person, a regional official, went to a doctor who ended
up dying from Ebola in August. Within a week, 70 people were being
monitored. It ballooned to an additional 400 people in that one city.

Success stories of people coming through strict Ebola surveillance
alive and healthy helped encourage more people to come forward, as
they recognized that ending up in a contact tracer's sights didn't
mean a death sentence.

In the end, contact tracers — trained professionals and volunteers —
conducted 18,500 face-to-face visits to assess potential symptoms,
according to the CDC, and the list of contacts throughout the country
grew to 894. Two months later, Nigeria ended up with a total of 20
confirmed or probable cases and eight deaths.

The CDC also pointed to the robust public health response by Nigerian
officials, who have had experience with massive public health crises
in the past — namely polio in 2012 and large-scale lead poisoning in
2010.

When someone is on a contact list, that doesn't mean that person has
to stay at home for the entire incubation period of 21 days from the
last contact with someone who had Ebola. People on contact lists are
not under quarantine or in isolation. They can still go to work and go
on with their their lives. But they should take their temperature
twice a day for 21 days and check in with health workers.

Officials in Texas began with a list of about 100 names; they have
whittled the list down to 50 people who had some contact with Duncan.
Of those, 10 are considered high-risk.

The CDC recommends that people without symptoms but who have had
direct contact with the bodily fluids of a person sick with Ebola be
put under either conditional release, meaning that they self-monitor
their health and temperature and check in daily, or controlled
movement. People under controlled movement have to notify officials
about any intended travel and shouldn't use commercial planes or
trains. Local public transportation use is approved on a case-by-case
basis.

When symptoms do develop, that's when the response kicks into high
gear. People with Ebola are contagious only once they begin exhibiting
symptoms, which include fever, severe headaches and vomiting.

While four people in Dallas are under government-ordered quarantine,
that is not the norm. Those individuals "were non-compliant with the
request to stay home. I don't want to go too far beyond that," Dallas
County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins said Thursday.
On Friday, the four people were moved to a private residence from the
apartment where Duncan had been staying when he became symptomatic.

A law enforcement officer will remain with them to enforce the order,
and none of the people are allowed to leave until Oct. 19.

Duncan is the only person with an Ebola diagnosis in Dallas, and no
one else is showing symptoms at the moment. But, as Nigeria knows, the
work in Dallas has just begun.

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/10/04/what-texas-can-learn-from-nigeria-when-it-comes-to-containing-ebola/)

10 Benefits of Outsourcing your Internet Marketing

When you're running a small business, time is a precious commodity.
And marketing can take up plenty of your time. Have you ever
considered outsourcing some of these resource-demanding tasks?

Some business owners still view "outsourcing" as a dirty word—but
today's outsourcing is worlds away from the cheap, badly produced
overseas industry it used to be. Outsourcing your online marketing
tasks is a smart move for many businesses.

Here are ten good reasons to consider adding outsourcing to your
Internet marketing tool box:

1. Save Time for Everyone

Whether you have a staff of one or one hundred, handing over your
marketing tasks to a third party frees up time across the board. All
those tedious hours spent on writing marketing material, developing
social media platforms, creating and managing email lists—with
outsourcing, you can get those hours back.

This leaves you and your team free to work on what you do best: your
core business.



2. Get Professional-Level Service

India is no longer the only place you can go for outsourcing. For
today's professionals, independent consulting and freelance work holds
a lot of appeal. It's easier than ever to find an experienced and
affordable online marketing professional who will work with your
company to learn your goals and implement effective strategies on your
behalf.



3. Gain an Outside Perspective

You're close to your business. You understand exactly what you do, how
you do it, and why. But do you know exactly what attracts your
customers? Your concepts of which aspects of your business should be
enhanced in your marketing may be slightly biased.

When you work with an outsourced marketing professional, you're able
to benefit from a fresh perspective. Online marketing consultants
understand how to attract and convert buyers—and they can offer you
valuable insights into new marketing angles and unique selling
propositions (USPs) that you may have missed.



4. Leverage Built-In Expertise

If you have someone in your business that does marketing, chances are
they have additional responsibilities. Entrepreneurs handle all the
hats themselves, and smaller companies may have online marketing tasks
split between a handful of team members who are also customer service
reps, bookkeepers, or human resources.

When you work with an outsourced provider, you're getting an expert in
marketing. That is their primary occupation—and they have not only the
experience, but the resources to get more effective results for you
through targeting and analytic research. You'll also be able to
benefit through benchmark comparisons to competitors, and more
effectively measure the success of your company's marketing—without
having to invest time and resources in an extensive market study.



5. Gain Access to Specialized Technologies

Your company may use a variety of platforms and technologies for
different functions, but how many marketing-specific programs do you
use? Especially for smaller businesses, the answer is usually either
not many or none.

When you outsource your internet marketing, you'll be able to work
with professionals who use the latest, cutting-edge technologies for
marketing, analytics, automation, and more—without having to invest
hundreds or thousands in additional software or tools.



6. Increase Your Flexibility and Agility

When a marketing opportunity arises, is your company equipped to take
advantage of it? Outsourcing gives you the flexibility to launch
online marketing projects on an as-needed basis—letting you scale up
or down according to your current needs, without having to make staff
changes or interrupt your core business flow.



7. Reduce Stress and Increase Productivity

Entrepreneurs and small businesses often don't have the resources to
dedicate to full-time, in-house marketing. This leads to the burden of
marketing falling on you as the business owner, or employees who are
working on other tasks alongside marketing initiatives. Things can get
stressful—particularly when some of your online marketing campaigns
are ineffective.

Working with a third-party provider for your Internet marketing can
dramatically reduce the strain of marketing for you and your staff.
When you're free to concentrate on your core business, everyone will
be happier and more productive.



8. Do More With Less

If you're handling your online marketing in-house, you may not be
using many channels. Maybe you're concentrating on your email lists,
or a single social media platform like Facebook, or a PPC campaign.
And you might not have time to work on basic online marketing
maintenance, such as updating your website or keeping your small
business blog going.

Outsourcing lets you work on multiple channels without overwhelming
your team. You can hire a graphic designer to update your website, a
copywriter to handle your blog or email newsletter, and a social media
expert to automate your platforms. With a variety of outsourcing
services available, you can turn over single campaigns, specialized
services, or even entire marketing functions to a capable third party.



9. Save Money

It's true that you have to pay for outsourcing. However, you often
save more than you invest by reducing your expenses for staff
(including space, salary, recruitment, and training), specialized
software, and other overhead costs.

Additionally, you'll benefit from the fixed costs of outsourcing. With
most third-party providers, you'll have a predictable, recurring
expense that simplifies your budgeting and helps to guard against
unexpected outlays of money and resources.



10. Facilitate Rapid Growth

When your company is expanding rapidly, your growth can be slowed or
even halted if you have to launch a lengthy recruitment campaign to
bring in enough staff to handle the increased business. You may also
end up rushing the hiring process and hiring the wrong people—which
can set you back even further.

Outsourcing allows you to quickly add qualified experts to your
marketing team, and handle the overflow until your staffing levels
catch up. You can also use outsourcing to provide additional hands for
new product launches, service upgrades, or other one-time events that
require a temporary boost in marketing reach.

By Megan Totka

(https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/10-benefits-outsourcing-internet-marketing-150013444.html)

Appetite, Taste Changes Reported After Weight-Loss Surgery

(HealthDay News) -- After weight-loss surgery, many patients report
changes in appetite, taste and smell, a new study says.

One positive aspect of these changes is that they may lead patients to
lose even more weight, the researchers suggested.

The study included 103 British patients who underwent Roux-en-Y
gastric bypass surgery, in which the stomach is made smaller and the
small intestines is shortened. Of those, 97 percent said their
appetite changed after the surgery, and 42 percent said their sense of
smell changed.

Taste changes occurred in 73 percent of the patients, especially when
it came to sweet and sour tastes, the researchers found. They
especially noted changes in the taste of chicken, beef, pork, roast
meat, lamb, sausages, fish, fast food, chocolate, greasy food, pasta
and rice.

Nearly three-quarters of patients said they developed a dislike of
certain foods, especially meat products. One-third avoided chicken,
minced beef, beef steak, lamb, sausages, bacon or ham.

About 12 percent had an aversion to starches such as rice, pasta,
bread and pastry and for dairy products such as cream, cheese, ice
cream and eggs, 4 percent to vegetables, 3 percent to fruit and 1
percent to canned fish.

The researchers also found that patients with a newly developed
distaste for certain foods lost an average of nearly 18 pounds more
after their surgery than those whose taste wasn't affected, according
to the study recently published online in the journal Obesity Surgery.

Although the study found an association between weight-loss surgery
and sensory changes, it did not establish cause-and-effect.

The taste and smell changes experienced by many patients after
weight-loss surgery may be due to a combination of gut hormone and
central nervous system effects, according to lead author Lisa Graham,
of the Leicester Royal Infirmary.

She noted that patients considering weight-loss surgery are typically
told about the possible loss of taste and smell.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about weight-loss surgery.

SOURCE: Obesity Surgery, news release, April 16, 2014

-- Robert Preidt

Photo: Jennifer Hudson before and after weight-loss. Many still
speculating she may have had weight-loss surgery.

Girlfriend of US first Ebola Victim Complains of Poor Quarantine Conditions

The girlfriend of the first U.S.-diagnosed Ebola patient is living in
quarantine hell, stuck in her Dallas apartment with the sweat-stained
sheets the virus victim slept on.

Photos taken Thursday showed police posted outside the Ivy Apartments
in Dallas after the girlfriend and three family members were accused
of violating orders to stay indoors.

Despite the warnings, one image showed a young man wearing a black
T-shirt reading "YOLO" — the acronym for "you only live once" —
stepping outside to retrieve boxes of delivered food.

In another shot, someone's hand can be seen through a window clutching
a thermometer.

The eerie images emerged as authorities said Ebola patient Thomas
Duncan lied on a health questionnaire he filled out before leaving
Liberia on Sept. 19. Liberian officials said they plan to prosecute
him for denying he had contact with someone infected with Ebola.

Officials suspect Duncan, 42, of Liberia's capital Monrovia,
contracted Ebola on Sept. 15 by taking an infected pregnant woman to a
Monrovia hospital. The woman died hours after she was turned away from
three hospitals and a clinic.

Duncan's girlfriend in Texas, the mother of one of his children, broke
her silence Thursday, telling CNN in a phone interview of the
nightmare she and family members are enduring in medical-crisis
seclusion.

The girlfriend, who would only give her name as Louise, said she was
confined to her apartment with one of her children and two nephews in
their 20s. She told CNN's Anderson Cooper they were all in the
apartment when Duncan became ill last week.

In a stunning disclosure, Louise said Duncan's sweat-stained sheets
remained on the bed he slept in and towels he used were also in the
apartment.

News of the questionable hygienic conditions in the home had Texas
health officials worried and scrambling.

"We have some hygiene issues that we are addressing in that
apartment," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, who also serves as
director of the county's Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Jenkins said a plan is in the works to move Louise and her relatives
out of the apartment.

A medical-waste contractor was also summoned to the apartment
Thursday, said officials at the federal Centers for Disease Control
and Protection in Atlanta.

The family has been ordered to remain in quarantine until at least
Oct. 19. Louise said neither she nor her relatives have exhibited any
symptoms of Ebola.

(nydaily news)

Happy 54th Independence Anniversary Nigeria!

God bless Nigeria, Land of opportunities!
No weapon formed against you will prosper,
You are a fruitful and peaceful place, a nation that can't be ignored!
Haven for entrepreneurs and businesses, may you continue to flourish!

"December 3rd 2011, the cover page of The Economist bears the image of
a boy running across a savannah landscape at sunrise, flying a rainbow
coloured kite shaped in the image of the African continent. The
caption reads: "Africa Rising". Within its pages the magazine paints a
scenario of dynamism, resilient entrepreneurial activity, fledging…yet
growing economies, nascent…yet stabilising democracies, a population
getting healthier and more educated, an expanding middle class
signifying a potential to even out the distribution of wealth. An
Africa, that is "getting its act together". 54 countries of different
ethnicity, culture, language and different levels of development, home
to 1.1bn people, the second fastest growing regional economy (second
to Asia) and home to more than half of the world's fastest growing
economies."- Dr Mobola Johnson (Minister for ICT)

First Ebola Case Diagnosed in the US

The first case of the Ebola virus disease on US soil has been
confirmed in Dallas, Texas.

Officials at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital say the unidentified
patient is being kept in isolation.

The man is thought to have contracted the virus in Liberia before
travelling to the US nearly two weeks ago.

"An individual travelling from Liberia has been diagnosed with Ebola
in the United States," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Director Thomas Frieden told reporters on Tuesday.

According to Mr Frieden, the unnamed patient left Liberia on 19
September and arrived in the US the next day to visit relatives,
without displaying any symptoms of the virus.

Symptoms of the virus became apparent on 24 September, and on 28
September he was admitted to a Texas hospital and put in isolation.

The disease, which is not contagious until symptoms appear, is spread
via close contact with bodily fluids.

This is the first case of a patient developing the virus on US soil,
says the BBC's Alastair Leithead in Los Angeles.

Preliminary information indicates that the unnamed patient, who was
described as critically ill, was not involved in treating
Ebola-infected patients while in Liberia.

Health officials are working to identify all people who came into
contact with the unnamed patient while he was infectious.

Those people will then be monitored for 21 days to see if an
Ebola-related fever develops.

According to Mr Frieden, it is possible a family member who came in
direct contact with the patient may develop Ebola in the coming weeks.

BBC News