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How Does ENERGY HEALING Help You Feel Better, Relieve Pain, and Assist Humans and Animals to Heal?
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We all live in overlapping fields of energies. These fields includes your physical body, your auric field (which consists of 6 additional bodies), electromagnetic fields that emanate from your organs and other body parts, and the energies of everyone and everything around us, including the earth.

Since everything is energy, including your consciousness, you might wonder how healing can ever happen without paying attention to the energy aspects of your bodies.

What Is Energy Healing?

Energy Healing is any healing method which helps restore and maintain the energy systems of your bodies by working directly with the energy of your bodies.

The term “energy healing” is used today for what has also been called “hands-on healing”, “spiritual healing”, “psychic healing”, and even “energy medicine.”

In energy healing, a wide variety of techniques can be used. Whatever techniques are used, they directly address the energetic levels of your bodies.

While tools such as stones and crystals, acupuncture needles, pendulums, singing bowls, and others can be part of a healing session, many practitioners use only their hands and their intention to facilitate a healing.

Clean, pure, love-filled energy (life force, prana, chi, ki) is made available to the bodies, while inappropriate energies are assisted to leave the bodies.

To be healthy and in balance, your energy must be able to flow freely, smoothly, and harmoniously.

What Can Disrupt the Energy of Your Bodies

Infection, injury, toxins, stress, too much or too little of any substance are all examples of events than can disrupt your bodies’ energies.

When you’re sick, it’s because the flow of energies has been disrupted, causing some areas to be jammed up with too much energy while others areas are depleted. The disruption can come from accidents, infections, emotional traumas, and many other stressful situations.

Several things can happen during an energy healing session to restore the smooth flow of energies. Here are some common examples.
- Disorganized and chaotic energy patterns become organized and harmonious.
- Blocked energy flows are unblocked.
- Sluggish energy flows are restored to normal speed.
- Depleted energy areas are assisted to regain a normal, healthy level of energy.
- Excesses of certain types of energy are reduced to normal.
- Disconnections between the spirit and body parts are reconnected.
- Communication breakdowns between body parts are restored.
- Energy that doesn’t belong is helped to leave the body.
- Repair the physical body’s etheric blueprint (template).
- Repair, balance, and harmonize the chakras.
Some examples of energies helped to leave are:
- viruses, fungus, bacteria.
- memory patterns of old injuries.
- memory patterns of weapons from this or past lives.
- emotions that haven’t been fully expressed.
These are just a few examples of what energy healing can address.

What Do Energy Healers Do?

Energy Facilitators support the body’s natural healing abilities.

Energy Healers facilitate the healing process, which is done by the bodies themselves. An Energy Healer is more accurately described as an Energy Facilitator. They do not actually heal the body. The body must heal itself.

The body, when functioning optimally, knows how to heal itself and how to restore balance. It wants to be in balance and harmony and good health.

What Are Some Benefits of Energy Healing?

Here are some of the benefits you may experience:
- Relief from physical/emotional pain and other symptoms.
- Feeling increased relaxation and calm.
- A reduction in your stress level.
- Feeling empowered to take charge of your healing process.
- A sense that your physical body is stronger or more able to cope with life’s challenges.
- A sense of well-being, comfort, integration, and wholeness.
- Feeling more at home in your body.
- Feeling more energized and more playful.
- Feeling more balanced and more grounded.
- Improved appetite; greater control over unwanted habits.
- Increased interest in life.
- Increased immune system function.
- Faster or more complete healing from illness, injuries, or surgery.
- A feeling of greater alignment with your I Am Presence.
- An opening to receive more Divine Love.
- A sense of greater connections with the Divine or with your I Am Presence.
- A feeling of greater alignment with your spiritual path.
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Source by Nedda Wittels

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July 27, 2022
Dangerous Driving Habits

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Many of today’s drivers have dangerous driving habits. You do not have to travel far to see people driving with risky driving techniques. Dangerous driving habits can be observed on highways, on residential streets, and in parking lots. Dangerous driving habits are not only fraught with danger to the driver performing them, but to the public as well.

Everyone eventually crosses paths with a reckless driver! Many of us survive these encounters, but some do not. Dangerous drivers kill people and destroy property everyday. As a result, Insurance companies cite dangerous drivers as one of the main reasons for the skyrocketing cost of automobile insurance.

There are drivers from all age groups that have dangerous driving habits. Younger drivers can be dangerous drivers simply because they lack experience driving in various environments, such as driving at night, or driving on interstate highways. Older drivers are sometimes dangerous because their senses and reflexes are not as sharp as they once were.

Technology has also added to dangerous driving habits. Cell phones are now more popular than ever, many drivers have cell phones. While driving in town or on the highway, it is rare not to see someone driving while talking on his or her cell phone. Another dangerous driving habit is applying makeup while driving. Applying make-up while driving is thought to be a leading cause of accidents, and is completely irresponsible. One of the most common dangerous driving habits is eating while driving. Many drivers leave the drive through lane of their favorite restaurant and immediately pull onto a road while trying to eat and drink the food they just purchased. All of those bad habits can distract a driver from paying attention to other drivers on the road and being aware of road conditions.

There are many kinds of driving habits that are considered risky. Speeding is a very common driving habit that can lead to a disaster. Drivers that speed are engaging in reckless and impulsive behavior. It is especially dangerous to speed in residential neighborhoods where children and pets may be playing. Speeding drivers can also be dangerous in neighborhoods where homeowners in their vehicles are entering and exiting their driveways.

Another category of dangerous driving habits is failing to use turn signals. Proper use of turn signals can help prevent most accidents. Failing to use turn signals properly can increase the rate of accidents with other vehicles and pedestrians. Turn signals are simple devices that can give advance notice to other drivers about your driving intentions. It is unfortunate that failing to use such a simple device can cause so many tragedies in terms of lives and property damage. Road rage is a one of the consequences of failing to use turn signals. Many drivers become enraged when they barely escape an accident due to another driver failing to use a turn signal to notify them before changing lanes or making a turn.

Many dangerous driving habits are a result of over confidence. Drivers with years of experience sometimes become dangerous drivers because they are over confident with driving their particular vehicle, or a particular route between home and work. They are not prepared when something out of the ordinary occurs.

There is an old saying, “Good habits are as hard to break as bad habits.” If you have dangerous driving habits you can change them by applying good driving skills for a few weeks, after a few weeks many of these good driving techniques will become your new habits. You should practice watching for speed limit signs, and adjust your speed if necessary. If you practice using turns signals every time you make a turn or change lanes it will quickly become a habit. Developing good, safe driving habits may one day save your life or the life of someone close to you.

(c) 2006, Marcus Barber

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Source by Marcus Barber

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July 27, 2022
Journey of a Drug: Design to Market Seller
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Where do the medicines we take from chemists come from? How do the doctors know which drug is good for which disease? How the medicines really are able to cure a particular ailment they have been prescribed for? Do these questions come to your mind, whenever you buy any medicine?

Come, let us today know about the medicine development from the beginning …

The development of medicine is called a Clinical Research and has different Phases. Phases of the clinical research are the steps of experiments with a health intervention in an attempt to find enough evidence for a process which the scientists think would be helpful in medical treatment.

The pharmaceutical study starts its journey from a drug design and drug molecule discovery which further progresses into animal testing and then human studies to see the drug's effectiveness.

Drug undergoes many trials- Preclinical, Phase 0, Phase I, II, III and IV. Sometimes combined trials also are undertaken to reduce the time of development, like Phase I / II and II / III.

Pre-Clinical Study

When the drug molecule is identified, it undergoes many in vitro ( test tube or cell culture ) and in vivo ( animal ) experiments. These experiments are conducted to know the preliminary efficacy, toxicity, and pharmacokinetics of the various doses of the drug. Many drug molecules are designed at a time and these pre-clinical studies let the pharmaceutical companies decide which molecule has a greater potential in further studies.

Design of the Studies:

Trials are always conducted by following the set of steps, called the protocol, developed by the researchers to find the specific questions related to the medical product. Information from the prior studies become the base for the researchers to develop research questionnaire and objectives:
- Participant selection
- Number of participants
- Duration of the study
- Controlled or not
- How and what dosage will be given
- What and when the data will be collected
- Review and analysis time
Phase 0 Study

It is also called micro-dosing trials, 10-15 human subjects are taken and single sub-therapeutic doses are administered to gather the pharmacokinetic ( PK ) data of the drug. This enables the company in deciding to go or no go for the further development of the drug, based on more relevant human data instead of animal data.

Such trials exceed the speed of promising drug development by establishing whether or not the drug acts on humans as expected in pre-clinical studies.

After the company decides to take the molecule of the drug forward in development, it will have to submit the data of its preliminary studies to the FDA called Investigational New Drug ( IND ) application filing.

Phase I Study

Also called First-in-man studies as these are the first stage of human testing studies. These are the studies which are designed to determine the maximum dose that can be administered without showing adverse effects.

Contract Research Organizations ( CROs ) conduct such studies in the clinical trial clinics where medical staff provides full-time attention to 2-100 healthy subjects enrolled for the study and collects the data.

These studies determine the safety ( pharmacovigilance ), tolerability, pharmacokinetics ( PK ) and pharmacodynamics ( PD ) of the drug. The design of Phase I studies is dose-ranging also called dose escalation studies conducted in controlled clinics called Central Pharmacological Units ( CPUs ).

Usually, healthy subjects are hired but sometimes terminally ill patients like of cancer and HIV and also those who have already tried and failed to improve on existing medications.

There are two divisions for Phase I study:

Phase Ia: Single ascending dose

Phase Ib: Multiple ascending dose

Phase II Study

More than 100 diseased subjects are enrolled for a longer period study, to know the benefits of the drug along with its safety which includes genetic testing. These studies are also called as "Proof of Concept or Pilot" studies.

This is the phase when the drug's development can fail due to toxicity or less than expected results.

Two divisions of this phase are:

Phase IIa: Pilot study, to determine the clinical efficacy or the biological activity.

Phase IIb: Dose-finding study, to check the biological activity with minimal side-effects.

A combined trial determining the efficacy as well as toxicity are Phase I / II trials.

Phase III Study

These are pre-registration trials means the data of this study is submitted to the regulatory agency through New Drug Application (NDA) for its registration. Also called Pre-marketing or Pivotal trials.

Such studies are multicentral, randomized, in large diseased population ( more than 500 ) with much longer duration of treatment and short follow up period, to determine the long-term safety and efficacy of the drug.

Even if the regulatory submission is pending, the drug is received by the patients in case it's a lifesaving drug until the drug can be purchased.

'Label expansion' that is drug can treat an additional disease, other than the disease for which the drug is already approved, may also be the reason for running the Phase III trial.

It is said that for FDA ( United States Food and Drug Administration ) and MHRA ( United Kingdom's Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency ) needs at least two trials of successful trials data to register the drug.

After these trials, the drug is approved for market selling.

Phase IV Study

These are Post Market Safety Monitoring studies done after the drug is registered. Also called Late Phase or Confirmatory trials.

This kind of study determines the long-term adverse effects on the much larger population for a very long duration (at least 2 years). If harmful effects are detected in this study, then the drug is disapproved and the company has to retrieve the drug from the market as it can no longer be sold.

The entire journey of the drug from a molecule to a market selling product takes around 15-20 years.

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Source by Nidhi Sharma

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July 27, 2022
The Secrets of Juicing: How To Heal Your Organs

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Do you ever feel like you want to eat more vegetables, but don’t know how to incorporate them in your diet? Well, juicing is the answer, people. Juicing is a great way to add a boatload of nutrients to your diet in a quick and efficient way. Drinking freshly made raw juice can help give your body extra fuel and a healthy boost.

Making the jump to juicing is an investment. We are going to let you in a secret, though. If you don’t want to buy a juicer, you can make fresh smoothies and get the same benefits (plus a bunch of dietary fiber) by blending all of the ingredients. But if you’re the kind of person that likes a smooth and light juice, go ahead and get a juicer.

Let’s be clear: juicing is not the only way to stay healthy. It also doesn’t balance out the junk food or processed foods you eat. Juicing is just a great way to channel your life in a healthy direction. Considering that most health officials say that it is good to get about 6-8 servings of fruits and vegetables every day, juicing can almost guarantee you those servings.

There are some awesome benefits of juicing, the number one being that it can help to nourish and heal your organs. Different vegetables contain vitamins and minerals that can be beneficial for your heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and your skin. These organs are vital in carrying out your body’s primary functions. If one or more of your organs is functioning improperly, your body will suffer. This is where juicing or cleansing can come to save the day.

Not everyone is aware of all the benefits of every fruit and vegetable. It’s pretty hard to retain all that info. So we’ve decided to give you a few juice recipes that’ll help out your major organs, because they deserve all the help they can get. All you have to do is process the ingredients in a juicer and drink the juice. It’s that easy.

Heart Health Juice: 1 Apple, 1 Beet, 6 carrots, ½ Lemon (peeled), and 2 Oranges (peeled).

This juice is packed with vitamin C, which helps nourish tissues and build cells.

The Eye Opener: 2 Apples, 10 Carrots, and 2 Oranges (peeled).

Quick Tip: when you make this juice, or any juice, you can use fruits and veggies that are about to spoil, so you don’t waste them.

The Best Juice for Your Liver: 2 Beets, 2 Carrots, 2 Celery Stalks, 4 handfuls of Parsley, 1 Jalapeño, 6 Radishes, and 4 Plum Tomatoes.

This juice has a little kick from the radish and pepper, but it helps your liver flush toxins out of your body.

Summer Breeze: 4 fresh Basil leaves, 1.5 cups Blueberries, 2 pinches Cayenne Pepper, ½ Lime (peeled), and 5 cups Watermelon (diced).

This juice has all the best flavors of summer. Here’s a secret, the watermelon rind is great for smoothing out roughage in your colon.

Skin So Health: 3 fresh Basil leaves, 10 Carrots, ½ Lemon (peeled), and 4 Peaches.

This juice helps rejuvenate your skin. Add a little organic coconut oil to the juice for an added benefit.

When you are juicing, you can always add water because that’ll help your digestion, speed up your metabolism, and give your cells some extra fuel. Share some of your favorite juice recipes with us and don’t be afraid to get a little creative.

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Source by Vinnie Stevens

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July 25, 2022
Playing With the Cure Time of Molds and Casts

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Every mold making and casting material comes with its own specific range of cure time. This is nothing but the time that the material will take to get completely cured. It can range from just a few minutes to hours or even a few days. The mold or cast has to be left to air dry on its own and there is nothing much that the artist can do in the meanwhile.

Similarly, the pot time or working time is the time on hand to work with the product after it is mixed until it starts to set. After this, the material will not work properly.

For instance, alginate is renowned for its quick setting and curing time, whereas materials like latex rubber require days on end to cure before they are ready for use. Most silicones have a cure time between 18 to 24 hours.

What to do?

Artists use various measures to speed up or prolong the cure time. In fact, delayed-setting and quick curing options are available for alginates, plasters, silicone and other materials. Sometimes, fibers, fillers, talc or magnesium oxide (for plaster) are added to achieve the same effect.

For certain materials like silicone, fast catalysts are also available. These can be added to the silicone rubber to significantly reduce the cure time, sometimes to even just an hour! Care is needed as adding too much catalyst may make the material start curing even before it can be applied.

Alternatively, techniques like hot air dryer, dehumidifier or baking in an oven are used to hasten the cure time. In fact, plaster casts are often baked to reduce the curing time to 12 to 24 hours. However, too much of the hot air can also cause the mold or cast to crack or spall. Also, silicone does not react very well to heating from dryers or lamps; it may just break out in unsightly bubbles all over the mold or cast.

Temperature variation

It should be noted that the pot time and cure time is generally measured at normal room temperature. It will definitely vary depending on the atmospheric and climatic conditions prevailing at the time of working/curing. For instance, cooler temperatures tend to increase the pot time and cure time while warmer weather is sure to reduce both working time and cure time.

This phenomenon can be easily used to vary the pot/cure time to suit your convenience when trying how to make molds. All you have to do is gently warm the material (both base and catalyst for two-part materials) before using them. This will speed up the chemical reaction and the mold or cast will take lesser time to cure. But keep in mind that the working time is also reduced and the material will start setting much more quickly. Do not overheat the materials either.

Similarly, cure time can be easily increased by refrigerating the material (both base and catalyst again) prior to use of how to make molds. This will give more time for working with the material per se.

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Source by Ed McCormick

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July 23, 2022
How To Leverage An E-Retailer’s Online Success To Launch Your Business At Warp Speed

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If you follow a system that leverages the trust, reach and the extensive user base of one of the world’s most successful online business entities, you can’t help but succeed. In fact, you can expect to do ten times better than if you tried to start your own business from scratch.

This is what attracts many online entrepreneurs to join Amazon’s e-commerce initiative, which is designed to help independent sellers to dip into their proprietary infrastructure, custom software, integrated payment processing and other resources to sell products to a global marketplace. The company profits from the small share in profits generated from all the resulting commercial activity on its digital platform, making it a win-win deal for both parties.

Entrepreneurs find it particularly exciting that there’s rich potential and unlimited upside profit potential from exploring synergies that exist within Amazon’s commerce platform. This makes it simpler to adopt the right approach to establishing a Web store.

It takes most of the risk, trial and uncertainty out of online selling and does away with the need to include technical experts on the launch team to tackle any software glitches or website problems that can crop up at the most uncomfortable and inopportune moments.

By following a system to sell products on the e-commerce retailer behemoth, taking advantage of their evolved and tested platform, software and payment processing facilities, a beginner to online retailing can save countless hours and huge expenses in building or renting out such capacity. It also offers an inexpensive way to test out offers and see if a model or product resonates with the customer market.

The difficulty lies in understanding Amazon’s complex mechanisms and learning how to leverage it to one’s advantage. Naturally, this led to the establishment of some experts as ‘coaches’. These business coaches conduct the necessary research, testing out each tactic and strategy to come up with a comprehensive plan to speed up the learning curve.

Some coaches promise to reveal how to build an entire business selling physical products of your own on Amazon’s digital platform. Trainees can learn how to start sourcing, branding and selling things online to a vast and growing audience. Such training gives any serious entrepreneur the opportunity to build a full-fledged business by tapping into the ready-to-buy audience that throngs Amazon.

And for those who can’t schedule coaching sessions or attend an event for training, a practical alternative is do-it-yourself courses that teach these fundamentals. The bottom line is that it has become relatively easier to launch an online business on the back of an established online retailer’s success.

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Source by Cumba Gowri

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July 23, 2022
Global leaders unite to ensure everyone everywhere can access new vaccines, tests and treatments for COVID-19

Heads of state and global health leaders today made an unprecedented commitment to work together to accelerate the development and production of new vaccines, tests and treatments for COVID-19 and assure equitable access worldwide.

The COVID-19 pandemic has already affected more than 2.4 million people, killing over 160,000. It is taking a huge toll on families, societies, health systems and economies around the world, and for as long as this virus threatens any country, the entire world is at risk.

There is an urgent need, therefore, while following existing measures to keep people physically distanced and to test and track all contacts of people who test positive, for innovative COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and treatments.

“We will only halt COVID-19 through solidarity,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Countries, health partners, manufacturers, and the private sector must act together and ensure that the fruits of science and research can benefit everybody.”

Work has already started. Since January, WHO has been working with researchers from hundreds of institutions to develop and test vaccines, standardize assays and standardize regulatory approaches on innovative trial designs and define criteria to prioritize vaccine candidates. The Organization has prequalified diagnostics that are being used all over the world, and more are in the pipeline. And it is coordinating a global trial to assess the safety and efficacy of four therapeutics against COVID-19.

The challenge is to speed up and harmonize processes to ensure that once products are deemed safe and effective, they can be brought to the billions of people in the world who need them. Past experience, in the early days of HIV treatment, for example, and in the deployment of vaccines against the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, shows that even when tools are available, they have not been equally available to all.

So today leaders came together at a virtual event, co-hosted by the World Health Organization, the President of France, the President of the European Commission, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The event was joined by the UN Secretary General, the AU Commission Chairperson, the G20 President, heads of state of France, South Africa, Germany, Vietnam, Costa Rica, Italy, Rwanda, Norway, Spain, Malaysia and the UK (represented by the First Secretary of State).

Health leaders from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), GAVI-the Vaccine Alliance, the Global Fund, UNITAID, the Wellcome Trust, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (IFRC), the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (IFPMA), the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers’ Network (DCVMN), and the International Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association (IGBA) committed to come together, guided by a common vision of a planet protected from human suffering and the devastating social and economic consequences of COVID-19, to launch this groundbreaking collaboration. They are joined by two Special Envoys: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Gavi Board Chair and Sir Andrew Witty, former CEO of GlaxoSmithKline.

They pledged to work towards equitable global access based on an unprecedented level of partnership. They agreed to create a strong unified voice, to build on past experience and to be accountable to the world, to communities and to one another.

“Our shared commitment is to ensure all people have access to all the tools to prevent, detect, treat and defeat COVID-19,” said Dr Tedros. “No country and no organization can do this alone. The Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator brings together the combined power of several organizations to work with speed and scale.”

Health leaders called on the global community and political leaders to support this landmark collaboration and for donors to provide the necessary resources to accelerate achievement of its objectives, capitalizing on the opportunity provided by a forthcoming pledging initiative that starts on 4 May 2020. This initiative, spearheaded by the European Union, aims to mobilize the significant resources needed to accelerate the work towards protecting the world from COVID-19.

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https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/24-04-2020-global-leaders-unite-to-ensure-everyone-everywhere-can-access-new-vaccines-tests-and-treatments-for-covid-19

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May 9, 2020
INFOSAN Quarterly Summary, 2020 #1

Food safety incidents

During the first quarter of 2020, the INFOSAN Secretariat was involved in 38 food safety incidents involving 109 WHO Member States and 9 territories of WHO Member States. There were 25 incidents involving a biological hazard (Salmonella spp. [8], Listeria monocytogenes [5], Norovirus [3] Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli [2], Clostridium botulinum [2] Bacillus cereus [2], Cronobacter spp. [1], Shigella sonnei [1], unspecified biological hazard [1]), 6 involving an undeclared allergen (milk [3], peanut (1), egg [1], gluten [1]), 5 involving a physical hazard (undetermined foreign matter [2], glass [1], metal [1], plastic [1]), one involving a chemical/toxin hazard (histamine), and one linked to an unspecified hazard.

The food categories that were most commonly involved in the 38 incidents during the first quarter of 2020 involved fish and other seafood (8), herbs and spices (4), legumes and pulses (4), milk and dairy products (3), nuts and oilseeds (3), snacks, desserts and other foods (3), cereals and cereal-based products (2), composite food (2), fruit and fruit products (2), meat and meat products (2), vegetables and vegetable products (2), products of special nutritional use (1), and food for infants and small children (1). One incident involved an unknown food source.

During such international food safety incidents, the INFOSAN Secretariat relies on the swift action of national INFOSAN Emergency Contact Points to respond to requests for information. Rapid sharing of information through INFOSAN enables members to implement appropriate risk management measures to prevent illness in their respective countries.

Geographic scope

The outlined incidents involved Member States from all WHO regions: Europe (39), followed by the Americas (24), Africa (24), the Western Pacific (18), the Eastern Mediterranean (8) and South-East Asia (6).

Recall in several countries of frozen spring roll sheets from Singapore due to the presence of an undeclared allergen

In February 2020, the INFOSAN Secretariat was notified by the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) and INFOSAN colleagues in Australia of a recall in Australia and several European countries of frozen spring roll sheets due to the detection of an undeclared allergen (milk), imported from Singapore. In collaboration with RASFF, the INFOSAN Secretariat was informed that the implicated frozen spring roll sheets were distributed internationally to 46 Member States from four WHO regions and 4 territories in Europe and the Western Pacific. Moreover, through engagement with the INFOSAN Emergency Contact Point (ECP) in Singapore, the INFOSAN Secretariat also received details of further distribution of implicated products to additional WHO Member States from all WHO regions, taking the total number of Member States involved to 65. It was also reported that the products involved had been redistributed by some countries to Europe, the Americas and Africa. Consequently, several countries recalled the implicated products to relabel them and investigated the issue to identify illnesses related to the consumption of the implicated frozen spring roll sheets. No illnesses were reported to the INFOSAN Secretariat.

This incident has highlighted undeclared allergens as an important category of hazards that can result in a largescale international response to implement risk management measures and prevent illness. In addition, it exemplified efficient communication among INFOSAN members and the Secretariat.

Outbreak of Listeriosis in the United States of America linked to enoki mushrooms imported from the Republic of Korea

In March 2020, the INFOSAN Secretariat was made aware by the United States (US) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of an outbreak of Listeriosis in the US linked to the consumption of enoki mushrooms, imported from the Republic of Korea. In total, 36 cases including 4 deaths have been reported in the US. Following investigations in Canada, carried out in collaboration with the US, the INFOSAN Secretariat was informed of 6 cases of Listeriosis between 2017 and 2019 in Canada potentially related by whole genome sequencing (WGS) to the ongoing outbreak in the USA. In addition, food isolates (from enoki mushrooms from the Republic of Korea) genetically associated with the cluster of cases have been collected in 2019 by authorities in Canada. The WGS information pertaining to the cases and food isolates were shared on the INFOSAN Community Website to assist the identification of cases in other countries.

The INFOSAN Secretariat engaged the INFOSAN Emergency Contact Point (ECP) in the Republic of Korea to seek details on any further international distribution of the implicated enoki mushrooms. Investigations are ongoing.

News & activities

Food Sector and the COVID-19 outbreak

On 31 December 2019, WHO was alerted to several cases of pneumonia of unknown origin in the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The virus, a previously unknown coronavirus has been named SARS-CoV-2 and is the cause of the COVID-19 disease.

The WHO Epidemic Information Network (EPI-WIN) aims to share information tailored to specific sectors, including food and agriculture. The INFOSAN Secretariat has recently developed a guidance document for food businesses with regards to COVID-19 and food safety which is now available online. The guidance has also been disseminated through EPI-WIN and presented during two webinars.

Call for applicants: INFOSAN Train-the-Trainer Workshop

In February, the INFOSAN Secretariat issued a call for applications for the INFOSAN Train-the-Trainer workshop. With the constant growth of the network, and the increased need for training that this entails, the INFOSAN Secretariat, in collaboration with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), has announced this workshop which aims to increase the human resources available to train INFOSAN members on a range of INFOSAN-related topics, online or in-person. As a result, it is expected that the understanding of the roles and responsibilities of INFOSAN members will be improved, resulting in greater participation that will enhance speed and efficiency during the response to food safety emergencies at the global level. The INFOSAN Secretariat, together with CFIA, look forward to hosting this important workshop later this year.

Developing the new INFOSAN Community Website

The INFOSAN Community Website (ICW) continues to be an effective tool for the network to disseminate information during food safety emergencies. Over the past year, through the INFOSAN member survey, the Secretariat has gained a better understanding of how members use the ICW and how it can be improved to enhance information sharing. The information collected, together with the experience of members of the Secretariat, has provided numerous innovative ideas to guide the development of the new ICW. The Secretariat is pleased to announce that the competitive process to select the vendor that will develop the new INFOSAN Community Website has concluded and the work on the creation of the new ICW has begun.

Voice of an active network member

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https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/23-04-2020-infosan-quarterly-summary-2020-1

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May 9, 2020
Hard fought gains in immunization coverage at risk without critical health services, warns WHO

Shutting down immunization services in the COVID-19 pandemic risks triggering a resurgence of diseases that can be prevented with safe and effective vaccines, warns WHO in the lead-up to World Immunization Week (24-30 April).

When immunization services are disrupted, even for brief periods during emergencies, the risk of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks, such as measles and polio, increase. Last year’s deadly measles outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, which took more than 6000 lives in a country already facing its largest Ebola outbreak, highlights the importance of maintaining essential health services, such as immunization in times of emergency. Further disease outbreaks will also overwhelm
health systems already battling the impacts of COVID-19.

“Disease outbreaks must not remain a threat when we have safe and effective vaccines to protect us,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “While the world strives to develop a new vaccine for COVID-19 at record speed,
we must not risk losing the fight to protect everyone, everywhere against vaccine-preventable diseases. These diseases will come roaring back if we do not vaccinate.”

WHO is working with partners all over the world to accelerate research and development of a safe and effective vaccine and ensure equitable access for the billions of people who will need it.

But even with an expedited process, development of a vaccine for COVID-19 will take time. Precautionary measures are essential now to help keep us safe from disease, including diseases for which vaccines already protect children and adults.

Too many people are still excluded from the benefits of vaccines

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world had made immense progress in ensuring that children are vaccinated. In 2018, 86 percent of children under the age of five globally were vaccinated with three doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) and
one dose of the measles vaccine, up from 72 percent in 2000 and 20 percent in 1980. The number of children paralyzed by polio has been reduced by 99.9 percent worldwide.

Yet, global vaccination coverage is still far from the 95 per cent coverage needed to fully protect communities against outbreaks of this vaccine-preventable disease.

In 2018 nearly 20 million children worldwide – more than 1 in 10 – missed out on lifesaving vaccines, such as measles, diphtheria and tetanus. Roughly, 13 million of the children have never received any vaccines, putting them and their communities
at risk of disease and death. The majority of these children live in countries with already fragile health systems, further limiting their access to essential health services when they fall sick.

Measles continues to remain an ever-present threat, especially if vaccination rates drops. Current projections indicate that the number of reported measles cases for 2019 will be at least 800 000. In 2020 there are increasing concerns about another
resurgence, especially if vaccination rates fall due to delay or suspension of scheduled immunization activities as a result of COVID-19.

Outbreaks of polio, diphtheria and yellow fever are also of high concern, especially in the countries least able to respond quickly and decisively to address an emerging outbreak, as seen in previous emergencies such as the polio outbreak in Syria in
2013.

Maintaining immunization services during COVID-19

As the response to COVID-19 continues, countries must act now protect immunization services, in order to further minimize disease outbreaks and loss of life. This includes, facilitating urgent catch up programmes in places where
services have been disrupted, ensuring strong supply chains, disease surveillance and trained health workers. Caregivers should also make sure they continue to vaccinate their children in line with national policies.

New WHO guidelines on immunization and COVID-19 recommend that governments temporarily pause preventive immunization
campaigns where there is no active outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease. But it urges countries prioritize the continuation of routine immunization of children in essential service delivery, as well as adult vaccinations such as influenza
for groups most at risk. If immunization services must be suspended, urgent catch-up vaccinations should be rescheduled as soon as possible, prioritizing those most at risk.

Read More
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/23-04-2020-hard-fought-gains-in-immunization-coverage-at-risk-without-critical-health-services-warns-who

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May 9, 2020
Should You Focus on Web Experience Management Today?

For companies currently getting their web content management technologies and processes up to speed for the purpose of greater business agility, the questions are: Do we have time to ?do? WEM in the sense and to the degree that the business media is saying we must? Does this need to be one of our highest priorities as a practice apart from or in addition to other brand and digital-content projects?

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http://www.associationofmarketing.org/articles/view.php?article_id=5328

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April 10, 2020