Public Health and Border Security: HHS and DHS Should Further Strengthen Their Ability to Respond to TB Incidents
GAO-09-58
Published: Oct 14, 2008. Publicly Released: Nov 13, 2008.
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Highlights
In spring 2007, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and state and local health officials worked together to interdict two individuals with drug-resistant infectious tuberculosis (TB) from crossing U.S. borders and direct them to treatment. Concerns arose that HHS's and DHS's responses to the incidents were delayed and ineffective. GAO was asked to examine (1) the factors that affected HHS's and DHS's responses to the incidents, (2) the extent to which HHS and DHS made changes to response procedures as a result of the incidents, and (3) HHS's and DHS's efforts to assess the effectiveness of changes made as a result of the incidents. GAO reviewed agency documents and interviewed officials about the procedures in place at the time of the incidents and changes made since.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Homeland Security | To ensure continuing improvements in HHS's and DHS's new procedures and tools developed in response to the 2007 TB incidents and to improve awareness of these changes, the Secretary of DHS should direct CBP to determine whether the benefits exceed the costs of enhancing TECS capabilities when creating public health alerts to include variations on other types of biographic information that could further enhance its ability to locate individuals who are subject to public health alerts and, if so, to implement this enhancement. | In fiscal year 2008, we analyzed how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Health and Human Services, and state and local health officials worked together to interdict two individuals with drug resistant infectious tuberculosis at U.S. borders, prevent their crossing the border, and direct them to treatment. We reported, among other things, that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)--a DHS agency--had enhanced its process for creating public health alerts based on some variations of biographic information (e.g., name, date of birth, or travel document information), but had not explored the benefits of creating these alerts based on other variations--a... problem that impeded DHS's ability to interdict one of the individuals at the border. CBP provided documentation showing that its Treasury Enforcement Communication System (TECS) data processing procedures had been modified and new policy and procedures established when public health alerts are created and entered. Now, when CBP officials create public health alerts in TECS, they review the subject's biographical information to determine if variations of the information are necessary to ensure the subject of the public health alert is properly identified at ports of entry. If the biographical information can be varied, the officials are to enter the varied information as a part of the alert. We found that the TECS data processing modifications and new policy and procedures could enhance CBP's ability to better identify individuals who are the subject of public health alerts and consider this recommendation to be implemented.
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| Department of Homeland Security | To ensure continuing improvements in HHS's and DHS's new procedures and tools developed in response to the 2007 TB incidents and to improve awareness of these changes, the Secretary of HHS and the Secretary of DHS should work together to continue to inform and educate state and local health officials about the new procedures and tools. | In response to our recommendation, in September 2010 CDC developed 2 companion products, the CDC Guidance for Requesting the Addition of an Individual to the Do Not Board and Border Lookout Lists and a checklist of action items for a Do Not Board/Lookout request. These companion products were made available to state and local health officials by providing them, with a letter explaining the documents, to three associations representing these officials, for posting on their member Web sites. CDC also posted links to the companion products on various agency Web sites, a CDC official said, and made presentations to state and local health officials about the new tools and procedures. In...
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| Department of Health and Human Services | To ensure continuing improvements in HHS's and DHS's new procedures and tools developed in response to the 2007 TB incidents and to improve awareness of these changes, the Secretary of HHS and the Secretary of DHS should work together to continue to inform and educate state and local health officials about the new procedures and tools. | In response to our recommendation, in September 2010 CDC developed 2 companion products, the CDC Guidance for Requesting the Addition of an Individual to the Do Not Board and Border Lookout Lists and a checklist of action items for a Do Not Board/Lookout request. These companion products were made available to state and local health officials by providing them, with a letter explaining the documents, to three associations representing these officials, for posting on their member Web sites. CDC also posted links to the companion products on various agency Web sites, a CDC official said, and made presentations to state and local health officials about the new tools and procedures. In...
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| Department of Health and Human Services | To ensure continuing improvements in HHS's and DHS's new procedures and tools developed in response to the 2007 TB incidents and to improve awareness of these changes, the Secretary of HHS and the Secretary of DHS should work together to develop plans with time frames for completing additional actions that require cross-agency coordination to respond to future TB incidents. | In fiscal year 2008, we analyzed how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and state and local health officials worked together to interdict two individuals with drug resistant infectious tuberculosis at U.S. borders, prevent their crossing the border, and direct them to treatment. We reported, among other things, that HHS and DHS should work together to develop plans for completing additional actions that require cross agency coordination to respond to future tuberculosis incidents. Since the issuance of our report, DHS and HHS continued to work together to protect the traveling public from individuals that pose a serious public...
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| Department of Homeland Security | To ensure continuing improvements in HHS's and DHS's new procedures and tools developed in response to the 2007 TB incidents and to improve awareness of these changes, the Secretary of HHS and the Secretary of DHS should work together to develop plans with time frames for completing additional actions that require cross-agency coordination to respond to future TB incidents. | In fiscal year 2008, we analyzed how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and state and local health officials worked together to interdict two individuals with drug resistant infectious tuberculosis at U.S. borders, prevent their crossing the border, and direct them to treatment. We reported, among other things, that HHS and DHS should work together to develop plans for completing additional actions that require cross agency coordination to respond to future tuberculosis incidents. Since the issuance of our report, DHS and HHS continued to work together to protect the traveling public from individuals that pose a serious public...
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Border controlBorder securityDisease controlDisease detection or diagnosisDisease surveillanceDiseasesEmergency responseEmergency response plansEmergency response proceduresEmerging infectious diseasesHealth hazardsHomeland securityInfectious diseasesInteragency relationsInternal controlsPolicy evaluationProgram evaluationPublic healthRespiratory diseasesRisk managementTuberculosisPolicies and proceduresProgram goals or objectivesPublic health emergencies