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Laurence S. Farer, MD
Center for Prevention Services Centers for Disease Control Atlanta

JAMA. 1985;254(11):1450.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

I am writing to correct one misapprehension on the part of Dr Schoenbaum¹ in his thoughtful editorial, "On Herds, Border Guards, and Ambulatory Infection Control." While the "Ellis Island" approach to quarantine was abandoned many years ago, that is not to say there is no longer disease surveillance and control at our borders.

For immigrants and refugees, scrutiny now begins at the point of origin rather than the point of arrival. Medical screening of immigrants and refugees is done before they are permitted to travel to the United States, thus eliminating the need to send people back from the port of entry. Moreover, since most persons arriving from abroad are not immigrants or refugees, the Public Health Service (PHS) has the authority to detain at the port of entry any person (eg, tourist, visitor, businessman, returning permanent resident, and returning US citizen) suspected of having certain . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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