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

Due to the long length of land borders, with intense population flows and different epidemiological and social scenarios, the vulnerability to the introduction and rapid spread of potential threats to public health is a fact that must be taken into consideration. Therefore, the development of systems and activities focusing on border epidemiological surveillance (BES) is essential both for domestic and global health security 18 . Based on the hypothesis that border surveillances must promote binational communication, an exchange of epidemiologic information in a timely and dynamic manner to improve the cross-border public health infrastructure through collaboration, this study aimed to analyze the different binational/multinational activities, programs, and structures to identify challenges and to suggest improvements of binational and/or multinational epidemiological surveillance partnerships on the borders of Brazil and the U.S.