Port of Djibouti

Today was meant to be filled with scheduled meetings - with the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, the director of the country's only medical school, the director of the government's Center for Research and Development (CERD) and the director of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). At the end of the day, though, one more meeting was added to our schedule as a surprise - a meeting with the Harbour Master and head of security at the Port of Djibouti.

As I already hinted earlier when discussing why I'm working in Djibouti, the Port of Djibouti is at the crossroads of one of the most important shipping routes in the world.
The reason for the meeting with the directors of the port, though, was not directly related to transportation or shipping, but rather, more appropriately, to health, specifically the health of port employees and the animals that are shipped through the port. Over two million animals are transported through the port each year, coming from Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan and going to Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The directors of the port expressed concern that these animals may carry diseases, to which port employees are then exposed, either by direct contact with the animals or by airborne transmission from the animal pens to nearby offices. They requested our help in developing a surveillance system to monitor these animals for vector-borne and zoonotic diseases. Although we couldn't make any promises up front, I think I may have the perfect project in mind to meet their needs. I'll discuss more later!(Random note: Photography is normally prohibited in the port, but since we were guests of the Harbour Master and the head of security, we were allowed to snap a few shots!)