September, 2004

Information

Quarantine Services at Canadian Airports

To help reduce the spread of serious communicable diseases, and to ensure all travellers are aware of action they could take should they begin to experience symptoms of illness, The Public Health Agency of Canada maintains Quarantine Services at Canada's major international airports.

Currently, there are Quarantine Officers at Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver international airports to meet international flights and perform health assessments.

Approximately 94% of all international airline travellers coming into Canada arrive through these airports. Quarantine Services maintain hours of service that ensure health care professionals can respond to the arrival of international flights at these airports. They, in addition to other Government of Canada officials such as Customs Officers, are continually vigilant in their surveillance for travellers who are exhibiting respiratory problems or other symptoms of communicable disease.

Most airport Quarantine Officers are registered nurses with significant experience working in public health, emergency, or primary health care settings. They have responsibilities that include:

• assessing ill travellers arriving on international flights who are suspected of having, or having been in contact with, someone with a serious communicable disease;
• assessing the medical and travel histories of travellers who have died in-flight en route to Canada;
• arranging for the diagnostic assessment of travellers by local health care providers when necessary under the authority of the Quarantine Act;
• advising appropriate public health authorities when an individual is assessed under the provisions of the Quarantine Act; and
• maintaining ongoing liaison with the airport authority, other government departments at the Port of Entry, and with local emergency medical and public health authorities.

If there is a major international outbreak of a serious communicable disease, Quarantine Officers may also:

• perform visual screening of travellers arriving on all international flights from an area affected by a particular outbreak; and
• assess travellers that have been identified as possibly being ill.

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