Quarantine, Travel Medicine
and Migration Health Programs
Quarantine and Migration Health Program
Mandate: The Quarantine and Migration Health Program (QMHP) implements
the Canadian Quarantine Act
and Regulations, and the World Health Organization's (WHO) International
Health Regulations. QMHP helps protect Canadians from the importation
of dangerous and infectious diseases which might pose a threat to public
health, through the international movements of persons, goods, and conveyances
(air planes, trains, buses, automobiles, ships, boats, etc.)
To safeguard the health of Canadians, QMHP coordinates Canada's response
to outbreaks of international disease. QMHP can implement contingency
plans and other emergency measures developed with public and private
sector partners.
QMHP provides information and advice to:
- public health authorities in Canada (provincial/territorial, municipal,
city)
- other Federal Government Departments and Agencies (Canada Customs
and Revenue Agency, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Royal Canadian
Mounted Police, Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Transport
Canada, etc.)
- international health authorities (WHO, U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, Pan American Health Organization, etc.)
- Canadian health professionals
- members of the public
QMHP also provides Border Health Security Training for other Federal
Government Departments.
Yellow Fever Vaccination Centres Program
Article 66 of the International Health Regulations, passed by the World
Health Assembly and which the Government of Canada is a signator, stipulates
that "the vaccinating centre must have been designated by the health
administration for the territory in which it is situated". Vaccinating
centres are officially designated by countries in accordance with the
International Health Regulations. Accordingly, Health Canada has established
criteria which must be met for a clinic to be designated as a Yellow
Fever vaccination centre. These criteria are designed to ensure that
those persons seeking a Yellow Fever immunization prior to travel abroad
have reasonable access to a Yellow Fever Vaccination clinic and are provided
with appropriate travel advice and safe vaccination practices.
Travel Medicine Program
Each year approximately 4 million Canadians travel abroad, with over
1 million Canadians travelling to tropical destinations. Health concerns
can arise as travellers encounter new and unfamiliar conditions that
can pose significant health risks. Protecting the health of Canadians
while they travel internationally is a growing area of public health
practice.
The Travel Medicine Program (TMP) assesses the public health risk for
Canadians travelling to, or residing in, foreign destinations, and provides
information to both the public and health care providers. This information
aims to promote the health of travellers while they reside at their destinations
and to prevent the introduction of infectious diseases into Canada on
their return.
As well, the Travel Medicine Program is the Secretariat for Health Canada's
Committee to Advise on Tropical Medicine and Travel (CATMAT). This advisory
committee provides travel and tropical medicine expertise to the Assistant
Deputy Minister of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The TMP strives to be the most accessible, authoritative and timely
public resource in Canada for the provision of travel health information.
To achieve that goal, the Program monitors, verifies and distributes
travel health information and recommendations about:
- current information on international disease outbreaks;
- immunization recommendations for international travel; and,
- disease specific prevention and treatment recommendations and guidelines
For the travelling public: The TMP offers general information
and recommendations to help individuals better understand their potential
disease risk and the need for a personal risk assessment by a travel
medicine professional prior to travel.
For health care professionals: The TMP disseminates recommendations
produced by CATMAT on the use of immunization products and drugs to prevent
or treat tropical diseases in travellers. Based on the most current scientific
evidence, the TMP also provides CATMAT recommendations on the standards
and quality of travel medicine advice given to travellers in Canada.
The Travel Medicine Program's travel health information can be accessed
24 hours-a-day via the Internet at www.TravelHealth.gc.ca.
Links to Partners:
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