To Protect the well being based on the Prevention is better than healing..
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Ebola of West Africa could affect chocolate supplies? -
The ongoing Ebola epidemic is being closely monitored worldwide, while global organizations struggle to find methods to best contain the disease.
The Ebola outbreak's economic impact is also expected have long-lasting, international implications, including its effect on the supplies and prices of one of the world's most popular commodities: Chocolate.
West Africa produces nearly three-quarters of the world's cocoa -- with the nations of Ivory Coast and Ghana responsible for 60 percent of that supply. And while Ebola has not yet appeared in those two nations, their proximity to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone -- the current epicenters of the Ebola outbreak -- have led to concerns that any continued spread of the disease could also cause a major disruption in cocoa production, and another spike in world cocoa prices.
Global demand for chocolate has been rising for years now. Even before the Ebola outbreak began, some analysts were concerned about whether cocoa producerscould keep up and remain sustainable with the world's insatiable appetite for chocolate. Cocoa prices also spiked last month, as word spread about the Ebola outbreak, but came down soon afterwards.
The uncertainty about cocoa supplies, meanwhile, is causing some jitters among chocolate-related industries around the world, and concerns about chocolate prices.
"If prices rise at a greater rate, chocolate manufacturers will pass the increase onto consumers," Andrew Rolle of Juremont, a major Australian importer of chocolate ingredients, told the Sydney Morning Herald. "It's a fragile market there at the best of times. There will be labor issues with the cocoa farmers in the fields, political issues, transport issues with accessing stock through ports."
Most major confectioners in the U.S. are reluctant to talk about how a potential cocoa shortage might directly affect them -- but chocolate giant Hershey did offer some perspective, saying the company is in close contact with its cocoa suppliers in West Africa over the Ebola outbreak and its potential impact on cocoa supplies.
"Our suppliers have assured us they will be able to continue to supply our cocoa orders without interruption, even if the disease begins to impact the major cocoa-growing countries in the region," Jeff Beckman, Hershey's director of corporate communications, tells CBS MoneyWatch.
Beckman also notes that, at least for now, cocoa production in West Africa hasn't been affected by the disease, and that operations at their cocoa suppliers continue, uninterrupted.
© 2014 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.
Bitter sweets: Could Ebola affect chocolate supplies? - CBS News
The ongoing Ebola epidemic is being closely monitored worldwide, while global organizations struggle to find methods to best contain the disease.
The Ebola outbreak's economic impact is also expected have long-lasting, international implications, including its effect on the supplies and prices of one of the world's most popular commodities: Chocolate.
West Africa produces nearly three-quarters of the world's cocoa -- with the nations of Ivory Coast and Ghana responsible for 60 percent of that supply. And while Ebola has not yet appeared in those two nations, their proximity to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone -- the current epicenters of the Ebola outbreak -- have led to concerns that any continued spread of the disease could also cause a major disruption in cocoa production, and another spike in world cocoa prices.
Global demand for chocolate has been rising for years now. Even before the Ebola outbreak began, some analysts were concerned about whether cocoa producerscould keep up and remain sustainable with the world's insatiable appetite for chocolate. Cocoa prices also spiked last month, as word spread about the Ebola outbreak, but came down soon afterwards.
The uncertainty about cocoa supplies, meanwhile, is causing some jitters among chocolate-related industries around the world, and concerns about chocolate prices.
"If prices rise at a greater rate, chocolate manufacturers will pass the increase onto consumers," Andrew Rolle of Juremont, a major Australian importer of chocolate ingredients, told the Sydney Morning Herald. "It's a fragile market there at the best of times. There will be labor issues with the cocoa farmers in the fields, political issues, transport issues with accessing stock through ports."
Most major confectioners in the U.S. are reluctant to talk about how a potential cocoa shortage might directly affect them -- but chocolate giant Hershey did offer some perspective, saying the company is in close contact with its cocoa suppliers in West Africa over the Ebola outbreak and its potential impact on cocoa supplies.
"Our suppliers have assured us they will be able to continue to supply our cocoa orders without interruption, even if the disease begins to impact the major cocoa-growing countries in the region," Jeff Beckman, Hershey's director of corporate communications, tells CBS MoneyWatch.
Beckman also notes that, at least for now, cocoa production in West Africa hasn't been affected by the disease, and that operations at their cocoa suppliers continue, uninterrupted.
© 2014 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.
Friday, October 17, 2014
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Monday, October 13, 2014
Ethiopia launches Ebola testing lab to combat epidemic - Sudan Tribune: Plural news and views on Sudan
October 12, 2014 (ADDIS ABABA) – Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health on Sunday disclosed establishing a modern laboratory centre in a bid to scale up the nation wide efforts to prevent entry of the deadly Ebola virus.
The modern laboratory which is known as Bio safety level 3 and 4 will start operating on Monday for screening and tasting purpose with the help of Ethiopian professionals who received training abroad.
According to Health Minister Dr. kesetebirhan Admasu, the country has introduced a new screening machine, called Thermo Scan Thermo Meter, which has a capacity of testing 1,000 individuals per hour.
As well as the new screening machine, other two thermo screening machines are currently operating at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport to test passengers particularly those coming from West African countries.
As part of the national Ebola prevention efforts, the minister said the government has slated over $3 million for emergency medical services.
He added the Ebola disease prevention technical committees will also be established in regions across the country.
National Technical Committee of Ebola disease protection Dr Daddi Gimma told Sudan Tribune that Ethiopia is currently offering Ebola testing and control measures 24 hours a day.
He said the disease testing and screening service is being conducted in a number of shifts at Airport to passengers incoming from 21 West African destinations.
Ethiopia and Sudan have also agreed to form a committee that would receive courses by specialists in the fields of combating epidemics and diseases in the wake of the Ebola virus threat.
The rapidly transmitting chronic disease which is sweeping West African countries has killed over 3,300 people.
No Ebola case has yet been reported in Ethiopia, the ministry said.
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Ebola, Fear and a Changing Texas near Ethiopian cafe - NYTimes.com
DALLAS — There is a little Ethiopian cafe here on Park Lane, down the street from where the man city officials call Patient Zero was staying. I walked in and asked the workers standing behind the counter if they knew anything about the patient, Thomas E. Duncan, a Liberian citizen who was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. Next to the cash register was a bottle of hand sanitizer.
They did not know him. But they called over a customer. The customer, a middle-aged woman, walked over. I don’t think she heard my question, but she heard one word within it: “Ebola.” With a worried look on her face, she stretched her arm in front of me, pumped the sanitizer a couple times and rubbed it on her hands.
Covering Ebola in Texas is like this — fleeting moments of fear, often stirred by misinformation.
Perhaps if I was sick and infectious with Ebola and had sneezed on my hand, and then I shook her hand, and then she used that same hand to touch her eye, mouth or nose, then maybe, just maybe, she would have had something to worry about. But I didn’t even shake her hand. Ebola carries a kind of scarlet letter even in the United States, particularly in a working-class community of African immigrants, and no amount of news conferences, posters or statements by health officials reminding people that the disease is not spread through casual contact but through direct contact with the bodily fluids of a sick person can fully shake that perception.
The people at the cafe wanted to make something clear, and it had very little to do with Ebola: This was an Ethiopian cafe, and Mr. Duncan was from Liberia. It was as if the two countries were on different planets. Their comments revealed something about covering this story that has been largely ignored in the news media coverage.
Ebola has opened a window into the melting-pot world of Texas immigrants. Outside the apartment complex where Mr. Duncan was staying, a small mob of reporters and cameramen huddled at the gates and desperately called over a man walking to his car. Did he know Mr. Duncan and the others in the apartment? Was he Liberian?
The answer to both questions was “no.” He was Burmese.
The fact that all of these people and places are in Texas — the Texas of Gov. Rick Perry, the Texas of rodeos and barbecue and concealed-handgun permits — shows how un-Texas Texas can be.
There are an estimated 10,000 Liberians in a four-county region that includes Dallas County. The area has always been dominated by a conservative Christian tenor, yet it has also quietly become home to 200,000 Muslims. Some of those stepping into the Dallas Central Mosque for prayers have been known to do so in cowboy boots. Last year, I drove to the affluent Dallas suburb of Plano to interview Mohamed Elibiary, a member of the North Texas Islamic Council who was born in Egypt and grew up in Dallas. He greeted me at his front door, wearing a Dallas Cowboys football jersey, jeans and black Converse sneakers.
In recent days, a doctored photo has created a buzz on social media and has been posted, forwarded, tweeted and retweeted. It shows Big Tex, the 55-foot mechanical cowboy that towers over the state fairgrounds in Dallas and serves as the city’s Howdy Doody-style mascot. He is wearing one of those light-blue sanitary masks over his nose and mouth.
In the corner it reads, “Welcome to Dallas!”
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)