Nearly 40 newly emerging or reemerging infectious diseases have appeared and spread to multiple continents since 1970--from HIV/AIDS and SARS to West Nile virus and poliovirus. A significant vehicle for the spread of disease today is the speed and volume of international and transcontinental travel, commerce, and human migration. These trends and the risk of bioterrorism have prompted the U.S. government to expand efforts to prevent communicable diseases of public health significance from being imported into the United States.

As part of this endeavor, Congress and the Bush Administration have given CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine (DGMQ) a mandate to more than triple the size of its system of quarantine stations at U.S. ports of entry and to play an active, anticipatory role in nationwide biosurveillance.

DGMQ has asked the IOM to examine the proposed quarantine station expansion plans and recommend how the system should evolve to meet public health needs of the 21^st century. This interim letter report Human Resources at U.S. Ports of Entry to Protect the Public's Health is the first of two reports responding to DGMQ's request.

In this report, the IOM Committee on Measures to Enhance the Effectiveness of CDC Quarantine Station Expansion Plan for U.S. Ports of Entry offers preliminary suggestions for the priority functions of a modern quarantine station, the competencies necessary to carry out those functions, and the types of health professionals who have the requisite competencies. The committee's final report, to be released in early summer 2005, will comprehensively assess the current role of quarantine stations and articulate a vision of their future role as a public health intervention.

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