A decade of gains in public health emergency preparedness and response at points of entry

ABSTRACT

The role of air travel in rapid translocation of infectious disease is indisputable.1 The global health community has long been concerned about the movement across borders of vaccine-preventable diseases, tuberculosis and other diseases of public health concern. These concerns escalated following the September 2001 terrorist attack and the anthrax bioterrorism incident in the United States of America; the worldwide spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003; and the reemergence of H5N1 avian influenza soon thereafter, which stoked fears about the possibility of a severe influenza pandemic. To better prepare and coordinate countries to respond to all-hazards health emergencies at their borders, in the past 10 years the global public health community has formed numerous domestic and international alliances.