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

The International Health Regulations (IHR) recommends that countries sharing borders and having common interests consider establishing multilateral agreements 7 . This aims to facilitate the implementation of IHR, consolidating the direct and rapid exchange of public health information and the application of health measures at borders. This effort may prevent and/or control the international transmission of disease at the crossing point 7 . Land borders are physical spaces with peculiar characteristics including large historical, cultural, ethnic, economic, and social heterogeneities. In many cases, these spaces have intense population flows, which create special conditions for disease transmission 8 . Several studies [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] have indicated that these border areas possess different dynamics and patterns of occurrence of disease when compared to other areas within countries.