In light of ever-increasing international travel over the years, the number of visitors arriving in Taiwan via both airports and seaports has also been on the rise. In 2014, the number of inbound travelers to Taiwan reached 43 million. As the Asian cruise market continues to expand rapidly, it brings not only blooming economy, but also the concern of infectious disease transmission. Hence, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) decided to further collaborate with the EU SHIPSAN ACT Joint Action partnership and the AIRSAN project to share and exchange information concerning public health at airports and seaports in order to maintain and further improve the existing capacities for disease surveillance and response at points of entry in Taiwan.

The SHIPSAN ACT Joint Action partnership launched in 2006 and the AIRSAN Project launched in 2013 are both funded by the Health Programme of the European Commission and are in close collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the International Civil Aviation Organization-Cooperative Aviation Security Programme (ICAO-CASP). Through participating in the Joint Action partnership and the AIRSAN Project, Taiwan CDC will be able to use and reproduce the European Manual for Hygiene Standards and Communicable Diseases Surveillance and take part in activities such as e-learning courses available on the SHIPSAN Act e-learning platform, live webinars on Health Threats related to Maritime Transport, and EU-organized training courses for port health officers, which will all further strengthen the core capacities at designated points of entry in Taiwan.

Taiwan CDC pointed out that the European Union has extensive experiences in responding to public health events. Both the Joint Action partnership and the AIRSAN Project are well-organized and developed with a solid scientific foundation and comprehensive programs aimed to promote information exchange among relevant international organizations and keep maritime transport and air transport-related health threats at bay. As one of the nation’s foremost public health agencies, Taiwan CDC is committed to the implementation of IHR (2005) and promoting global health security using the One Health approach.