Egypt slaughers pigs

Interestingly, Egypt has decided to slaughter all swine in the country as a response to the current H1N1 flu outbreak. Although no cases have been identified in Egypt, I'm guessing the government, who has tried several times before to eliminate swine from the country, is using the outbreak as an excuse to make a jab at the Christians in the country, who are the only ones who consume pork and therefore the only ones who raise pigs.

Egypt orders slaughter of all pigs over swine flu
by: Maamoun Youssef

Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precautionary measure against the spread of swine flu even though no cases have been reported here yet, the Health Ministry said.

The move immediately provoked resistance from pig farmers. At one large pig farming center just north of Cairo, farmers refused to cooperate with Health Ministry workers who came to slaughter the animals and the workers left without carrying out the government order.

"It has been decided to immediately start slaughtering all the pigs in Egypt using the full capacity of the country's slaughterhouses," Health Minister Hatem el-Gabaly told reporters after a Cabinet meeting with President Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt's overwhelmingly Muslim population does not eat pork due to religious restrictions. But the animals are raised and consumed by the Christian minority, which some estimates put at 10 percent of the population.

Health Ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman estimated there were between 300,000-350,000 pigs in Egypt.

Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza told reporters that farmers would be allowed to sell the pork meat so there would be no need for compensation.

In 2008, following fears over diseases spread by animals, Mubarak ordered all pig and chicken farms moved out of population areas. But the order was never implemented.

Pigs can be found in many places around Muslim world, often raised by religious minorities who can eat pork. But they are banned entirely in some Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Libya.

In Jordan, the government decided Wednesday to shut down the country's five pig farms, involving 800 animals, for violating public health safety regulations.

Home sweet home

I guess it's about time I post some pictures of my new place! It's a two-bedroom flat on the ground floor of a building on a quiet street. I have my own entrance from the street with a little terrace area that I want to decorate with some outdoor furniture and plants.
I tried to take pictures on the night I arrived with all of my stuff, so I'm including the "before" pictures from that night with "after" pictures of how the place looks now. I guess they're not true "after" pictures since I still have plans to do a few things to the place, but they're "after-removing-all-the-Egyptian-decorations-that-came-with-the-place-and-unpacking-a-few-of-my-own-things" pictures.

When you enter the front door, you walk straight into the dining room. In fact, the flat's pretty small, so the door won't even open all the way because of the table, but it's not an issue.

"Before" picture of the dining area (the picture, table cloth and fake flowers have since been removed!)

"After" picture of the dining area across from the table

Straight in front of the dining area through a large, open doorway is the living room.

"Before" pictures of the dining room (with all my boxes and bags to move in)

Another "before" picture of the living room

And the "after" living room

And the "after" living room

To the left, between the dining area and living room, there's a small hallway to the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. My washing machine actually sits in the middle of the hallway.

"Before" picture of the hallway

"After" picture of the hallway

The kitchen is to the right of the washing machine. As I mentioned before, they've started doing some work on the plaster walls but haven't been able to finish yet. Within a couple weeks, though, the walls should look good as new.

"Before" kitchen

"After" kitchen

Another "after" shot of the kitchen

And one shot of the refrigerator

To the left of the kitchen (and the left of the washing machine in the hallway) is the bathroom.

"Before" picture of the bathroom

"After" bathroom

And the shower

And the sink

Finally, to the left of the bedroom, is my bedroom.

"Before" shot of the bedroom

"Before" shot looking back toward the hallway

After moving some furniture and adding my own bedding

With the closets

The wall looking back toward the hallway

There's one more bedroom, which is on the opposite side of the apartment, but I forgot to take a picture of it. It has two twin beds and will be perfect for visitors - so ya'll are welcome any time!

Animal facilities

Warning: There are a few somewhat graphic/disturbing images toward the end of this post.

Another area of interest in Djibouti is related to vector-borne and zoonotic disease (pathogens carried by insects and animals). Each year, over three million animals are transported from Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan, through Djibouti, to the Arabian peninsula and Gulf states, so there's huge potential for an outbreak of an emerging disease or the spread of an endemic disease. To develop a surveillance system for these types of diseases, I first met yesterday afternoon with a representative from the Ministry of Agriculture. With his support, today, I am trying to visit three main animal facilities in the country - the animal quarantine facility, the national slaughterhouse - to determine if any would be suitable for disease surveillance and/or research.

This morning, I started the day with a trip to the animal quarantine facility which receives all animals for quarantine as they arrive in Djibouti. I was given a full tour of the facilities and learned about the systems by which animals are received and shipped. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures inside the facilities (it's owned by a private Saudi Arabian company and the owner who was showing me around didn't seem very pleased when I asked if I could take pictures) but I took a few pictures of the camels just outside the gate.

Camels waiting to enter the quarantine

Camels being herded into the quarantine - each one is inspected and vaccinated as it enters

After gathering all the information I needed at the quarantine facility, I headed to the slaughterhouse. In Djibouti, animals are slaughtered over night to avoid the heat of the day and so that the meat is available in the market first thing in the morning, so by the time I arrived, no animals were being killed, but I still had a full tour of the facility. First I walked through the holding areas where animals are kept before slaughter.
From here, the animals are brought inside to the slaughtering areas.
The carcasses are then loaded onto trucks to be transported to the markets for sale.
Their hides are treated with salt and laid outside to dry in the sun before being sold in bulk to leather producers.
I spent a lot of time at the quarantine and slaughterhouse facilities, so I wasn't able to visit the livestock farm near town, but I felt like I had seen enough. By the end of my time in the slaughterhouse, I was pretty much ready to move on and hop on a plane out of Djibouti.

Housecall

I've had a cough for about two weeks now, and earlier this week, it was actually so bad that I lost my voice for two full days. My voice has only just begun to return and I'm still coughing a lot, so I sound like a mess (even though I feel just fine). My contact in the Ministry of Health (who, as a sidenote, may become the president of Djibouti within the next few years) noticed this tonight while we were meeting around 8:30 p.m. in the lobby of my hotel (his schedule is always packed so usually the only time I can get a couple hours of his time is pretty late). He interrupted our meeting to say he would be back in half an hour - he was worried about my cough and was going home to get his stethoscope and prescription pad. I tried to explain that I was fine, but he was insistent, so I figured it couldn't hurt to get a physician's advice and finally agreed. Half an hour later, he returned to the hotel and after a quick check-up, wrote me a prescription. Before I could begin to wonder how I would ever get the prescription filled, he had sent his driver to the pharmacy and told me the driver would deliver the prescription within an hour. I was all set!

Centre Paul Faure

Tuberculosis (TB) is a huge issue in Djibouti, so my first stop was Centre Paul Faure (CPF), the national reference center for tuberculosis. CPF sees about 9,000 patients per year for diagnosis of TB and many more for follow-up and treatment. The patients are of all ages and come not only from Djibouti but also from neighboring countries such as Ethiopia and Somalia, where diagnostics and treatment are unavailable.
Even though Djibouti is estimated to have the highest prevalence of TB in the world, the laboratory capacity for diagnosis is very limited. Diagnosis is based primarily on smear microscopy, which only detects about half of all positive cases tested, and there is no testing for drug susceptibility that could identify drug resistant strains of TB and allow patients who have resistant strains to have appropriate clinical follow-up.

One of my biggest projects in Djibouti, then, is to improve laboratory capacity for TB diagnosis at CPF. We're going to introduce a new TB diagnostic called MODS (microscopic-observed drug-susceptibility assay) for the diagnosis of all new suspect cases of TB at CPF. The test provides more accurate results (it detects 97% of all positive cases tested!) and also allows drug sensitivity testing for first line TB drugs. Plus the results are available much more rapidly than traditional cultures (most of the time within 5-7 days) and each test costs less than $3.

MODS is a really promising new technology for TB diagnosis, especially in countries like Djibouti. The only issue right now is that we have to turn the following spaces into biosafety level 2 laboratories before we can implement the test. It's going to be a challenge but hopefully we'll be able to do it!

Back in Djibouti

I’m back in Djibouti for trip number three. It’s a quick one this time, planned at the last minute and just three days long, but hopefully it will be productive. The majority of the protocols and projects that I’m managing are in Djibouti so even though I’m only here for a short period of time, I have a lot to do. Over the next couple days I’ll be holding meetings, conducting assessments, visiting sites, making new contacts and following up on previous meetings for a number of projects including:

• Surveillance for vector-borne and zoonotic diseases in human, animal and insect populations at the local slaughterhouse and in the animal transport section of the port,
• Management of HIV-positive patients with suspected drug resistance to antiretroviral treatment,
• Study of drug resistant gonorrhea in patients seeking treatment for sexually transmitted infections at the national reference center,
• Study of sexually transmitted infections and HIV genotyping and drug resistance in commercial sex workers,
• Capacity building for diagnosis and surveillance of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) at the national tuberculosis reference center,
• Construction of a central public health laboratory to serve as a reference laboratory and surveillance center, and
• Hiring of a local person to assist with the coordination of these and other activities.

There’s a lot to be done and I know that only gives a vague overview of what it all entails, but I’ll try to write more and post some pictures after each meeting.

Twitter

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about something called Twitter, a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as "tweets", which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them. Apparently it’s the new big thing in the world of social networking on the internet. A number of celebrities, and even President Obama, are now “twittering”, according to a program I saw a few nights ago on CNN.

Tonight I decided to look up the website and try to figure out what “twittering” is all about and, while I’m still not sure I really grasp the full concept, I signed up for an account. From what I understand, this means I can now send brief messages either from the internet or my mobile phone to be posted on the internet to let everyone know what I’m doing or what I’m thinking. Although, I have to admit, I doubt anyone is really that interested in my thoughts or actions that they will really want instantaneous updates. That’s not the reason I signed up for Twitter.

I first heard about Twitter last year during the attacks in Mumbai. Apparently some of the people trapped inside the hotels used Twitter to post messages about what was happening as teh attacks were taking place. Although I certainly hope I will never be in such a situation, if something were to ever happen in all of my travels, I think it would be tremendous to be able to send a text message from my phone that would post on the internet to let everyone know I’m ok.

So I’m now “twittering”. Or at least trying to figure out how to “twitter”. One I figure it out, you can see updates in the left column of this blog under "Twitter Updates".

On the road

Herd of sheep on the highway

Fish and Green Eyes

About two weeks ago, I picked up a fish at a pet store in my neighborhood. I've never had much luck with keeping fish alive, so I thought I'd wait a little while before telling anyone. But Fish is alive and well, so here he is...
Just a few days after getting Fish, a furry little critter showed up on my front doorstep. I literally opened the window one Saturday and this little gal was sitting right under it and started meowing at me. I walked outside and pet her for a few minutes and then gave her a little bowl of milk. Since then she's shown up at my house every couple of days. Sometimes, if I leave the screen door open while I'm hanging up laundry or something, she'll even walk into my house and just wander around like she owns the place. Since she's becoming a regular visitor, I decided I should give her a name, so I'm calling her Green Eyes.
So now as long as Green Eyes doesn't decide to eat Fish, we'll all be happy.

Construction update

The construction workers didn't leave my house until 11:00 last night. Thankfully, though, they were really nice and things went a lot more smoothly than they could have. My house is still a bit of a mess but at least they got a good start on the work.

Repairmen

I’ve been a little hesitant to post pictures of my new flat, not that I don’t love it, but certain parts of the walls of my kitchen, bathroom and bedroom have been looking like this:
It's not that I'm exactly ashamed; I just didn’t want anyone to worry about me living in some trashy, run-down flat in the middle of Cairo. Besides, my landlady and her husband promised to have it fixed.

I’ve been waiting for that fix for almost a month and tonight, finally, we scheduled an appointment for the repairman to come. My landlady called and said that her husband would come over while the repairman was here to take care of anything. He arrived at my apartment about fifteen minutes late (which is quite on time by Egyptian standards!) and began looking for the repairman. It wasn’t long before the repairman arrived and walked in my front door, followed by two other repairmen. Apparently the job didn’t just require a repairMAN but actually needed three repairMEN.

They greeted my landlady’s husband in Arabic, completely ignoring me, and walked straight into my bathroom, speaking the whole time in rapid Arabic. I felt invisible. There was clearly a lot to talk about and before long, my shower curtain had been taken down and a man was walking out of the bathroom with a confused look on his face and an armful of American toiletries. Soon the other two were behind him, also with handfuls of bottles and tubes. I wondered what they must be thinking about American women and the effort we take to get ready in the mornings. The comedy continued as two of the men left for a trip to the hardware store (at least that’s where I assume they went; they haven’t returned yet) and I was left to help the other two prepare for the work. By “help”, I mean try to figure out what they were asking me for and then attempt to provide it. Quickly I learned the words for “plastic”, “hammer” and “ladder” (even though I only had the first two). Now I’m sitting here while the men stand outside chain-smoking cigarettes until the other two return from their errand.

Once they finish their work (whenever that may be, since it’s already almost 8:00 p.m. and they still haven't started!), I’ll take some more pictures so I can show off the finished product.