Establishing Core Capacities of the Designated Port of Entry for International Health Regulations 2005 at Kaohsiung Port

Tzu-Yi Lee、Hui-Chen Lin、Feng-Hui Chang、Chiou-Yueh You、Chao-Ching Chang

2015 Vol.31 NO.2

Correspondence Author: Tzu-Yi Lee

  • Kaohsiung-Pingtung Regional Center, Centers for Disease Control, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan

Abstract:

      Worldwide trade transportation is both convenient and frequent, yet a public health problem then occurs in a certain corner on the Earth may bring worldwide-scale catastrophe through transportation. To prevent such international-scale public health incidents, the World Health Organization (WHO) has formulated the International Health Code for countries to use in prevention and management, in hopes to protect people from the transmission of international contagious diseases.
      Although Taiwan is not a member of WHO, in order to attend world events, we chose Taoyuan International Airport and Kaohsiung Harbor as designated ports according the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR) to promote the establishment of core capacity requirements at designated airports, ports and ground crossings; apart from self-assessment of designated airports, ports and ground crossings, in August 2011 and March 2013, experts from Japan and Australia were invited to Taiwan to conduct preliminary and secondary assessment of core capacity requirements at designated airports, ports and ground crossings on separate occasions. On both occasions, we received extremely high grades on external assessments, which show that our core capacity requirements at designated airports, ports and ground crossings have exceeded IHR 2005 requirements.
       In the future, apart from applying to join WHO, we also hope to invite WHO experts to authenticate our core capacity requirements at designated airports, ports and ground crossings to elevate the international competiveness of our ports and propagate the establishment experience to other ports in Taiwan to create safe and comfortable port environments.

Keywords:World Health Organization, International Health Regulations, core capacity requirements at designated airports, ports and ground crossings