Epidemiological surveillance of land borders in North and South America: a case study

Bruniera-Oliveira, Robson; Horta, Marco Aurélio Pereira; Varan, Aiden; Montiel, Sonia; Carmo, Eduardo Hage; Waterman, Stephen H; Verani, José Fernando de Souza

In both surveillance systems, more than 55% of the technicians at several operational levels realize that the BES and their activities (detection, investigation, and binational or multinational notification) are high priority. Nevertheless, for these technicians, the nonexistence and/ or availability of a formal protocol with the neighboring country is considered a limiting factor for the development of appropriate actions. Only 38% of respondents in South America are familiar with the contact points involved in the notification and binational investigation. This proportion increases to 55% on the U.S.-Mexico border where there are available statements, guidelines, and protocols to develop joint activities in the border areas (Table 2) . A specific document, the "U.S. Mexico Binational Communication Pathways Protocol," for the land border deserves to be highlighted. This document has been improved since 2002 by several technicians at several operational levels of the two countries and proposes to systematize and enhance the exchange of information mechanisms 26 .