An A1C test allows doctors to examine glucose levels over a two-to three-month period and can be a useful tool in judging the effectiveness of a treatment plan. Diabetics used to depend only on urine tests or daily finger sticks to measure their blood sugars.
The formal economy of this region depends on agricultural exports. For example, Ethiopia is a major coffee exporter (80% of its total exports) and Somalia is a major banana and livestock exporter (roughly half of its total exports). The majority of the economy of the Horn of Africa is informal.
Coffee is a major export commodity: it was the top agricultural export for twelve countries in 2004, the world's seventh-largest legal agricultural export by value in 2005, and the second most valuable commodity exported by developing countries, from 1970 to circa 2000.offee cultivation first took place in Ethiopia. The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking appears in the middle of the 15th century in the Sufi shrines of Yemen. In the Horn of Africa and Yemen, coffee was used in local religious ceremonies.