Port Health Services was established in response to the outbreak of the Bubonic Plague which started in Europe in 1925, with a broad objective of ensuring health security, to detect, reduce or eliminate the source(s) of infectious disease(s), and provide surveillance and response to public health threats at the nation's entry/exit points based on international standards.
The functions for achieving national health security require core competencies at designated points of entry, with the aim of strengthening non-designated points of entry to provide as many similar services as their capabilities and location will allow. These functions include boarding and inspecting conveyances; ensuring environmental sanitation, pollution control, vector control and waste disposal; providing curative and preventive healthcare services to the mobile population - including vaccinations, providing referrals/access to hospital and laboratory services, as well as inspecting and certifying food, food premises and food handlers. The performance of these functions facilitates detection and response to disease transmission routinely, during outbreaks and during occurrences of Public Health Emergencies of International Concern.
With the now persistent landscape of emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats, which is being propelled by exponential increases in the traveling population, speed of travel and diverse travel/trade destinations, these functions have been progressively modied to reect adaptations that are internationally accepted, and that ensure the integrity of the original objective.
Operationalizing these functions in a multi-sectoral setting has been fraught with a number of challenges that a clear outline of duties/responsibilities, identication of areas for collaboration and joint activities, and adequate funding support will go a long way to forestall. The International Health Regulations (2005) clearly spells out the jurisdiction of the Public Health Authority at the Points of Entry and implies their oversight directly or indirectly over all public health services and activities to ensure competencies of international standards are achieved and maintained. It is thus necessary to have a policy in place as part of the effective measures required to assure clarity in communicating the needs, roles, and responsibilities of multiple players in the public health security mosaic that has become necessary to curb the tide of infectious disease spread across the borders.
The policy clearly highlights the public-health-related functions of all agencies including the Port Health Services who is the Public Health Authority at Points of Entry, strategies for quality border health service delivery, ways to enhance partnerships and collaboration with public health Point of Entry stakeholders, approaches to strengthening border (consequently national and global) health security as well as monitoring and evaluation of port health activities.