Study on Analysis of Quarantine Legislations and Systems in Australia for Building an Integrative Quarantine System

We studied how to build more systematic and scientific quarantine systems that are able to prevent pandemic influenza through the analysis of the advanced quarantine systems and quarantine situation in Australia. The quarantine in Australia is based on the Quarantine Act 1908, the Quarantine Regulation 2000, and the Quarantine Proclamation 1998 and has various quarantine inspection and disinfection guidelines for each vehicle. As well, the Australian quarantine systems operate both independently and complementarily among the federal government and the state and territory health authorities, as well as various departments within the federal government. In other words, they classify three steps: pre-border, border, and post-border, and the state and territory health authorities have the power to govern in border and post-border areas. However, the federal government is superior to state and territory health authorities in situations such as public health emergencies, and so on. In the Australian quarantine systems, human quarantine and the quarantine of animals and plants are carried out together through the cooperation among the Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA), the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry (DAFF), the Immigration Office, and the Customs Office, which work together during the entry process. Australian quarantine systems are basically voluntary quarantine reporting and sanitary systems, refraining from old-fashioned quarantine systems which depend on human resources. This is because they realized that it was impossible to manage every increasing quarantine coverages. They also built a network (Communicable Diseases Network Australia New Zealand(CDNANZ)) and work together with New Zealand to manage infectious diseases internationally. We suggest how to make an integrated quarantine system that is more scientific and preventive through the review of the quarantine systems in Australia : ① Paradigm shift of the quarantined infectious diseases from bacterial infection to virus infection, ② Preparation of quarantine inspections and disinfections for each infectious disease, ③ Preparation of quarantine inspections and disinfections in each vehicle, ④ Acceptance of Electronic Pratique - based quarantine system, ⑤ Shift of voluntary health reporting system, ⑥ Rebuilding of the quarantine affair coverage, ⑦Establishment of consultative group and improvement of quarantine expertise.ope