Review of Simplifying Border Quarantine Practice in Taiwan

DOI: 10.6525/TEB.20161220.32(24).001

Yuan-Pei Chang^1＊, Chia-Chen Jhao², Yi-Chun Wu¹, Li-Li Ho¹, Cheng-Fu Su¹

2016 Vol.32 NO.24

Correspondence Author： Yuan-Pei Chang^1＊

Abstract：

Since the late 19^th century, Taiwan has been implementing systematic border quarantine procedures. There are many quarantine measures applied to the entry of conveyances, persons and goods at international ports. However, the border quarantine system faced many challenges and pressures due to the changes of the internal and external environmental factors. Therefore, Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC) introduced a series of simplifications for border quarantine since 2014. To understand the effectiveness of the policies, we surveyed the reduction of man-hours of all regional centers after simplifying border quarantine measures, and used “Infectious Disease Data Warehouse” and “CDC Business Objects” to collect relevant data. The results showed that all regional centers reduced a total of 349.1 man-hours per month and in which Taipei, Northern and Kaohsiung-Pingtung Regional Centers accounted for 90%. In addition, after the application of restrictive blood collection, the rate of confirmed imported dengue cases detected in international ports was similar to previous years. Therefore, restrictive blood collection performed a good level of effectiveness with the simplified policy.

Taiwan CDC will continue to assess, plan and adjust border quarantine measures and strengths with a vision to minimize the burdens of frontline quarantine personnel, as well as maintain a flexible response to ensure the maximum protection for the health.