Ship sanitation certificates in Brazil

With the entry into force of the International Health Regulations (2005) in June 2007, among the provisions that apply to conveyances is a new Ship Sanitation Certificates - Control Exemption/Ship Sanitation Control Certificates (SSCEC/SSCC) – that is an instrument to assist countries to minimize the risk of international spread of disease via international vessels. Now health authorities must use these documents to identify and record all areas of ship-borne public health risks, together with any required control measures to be applied.

This paper aims to carry out the diagnosis of SSCEC/SSCC implementation in Brazil as well as the difficulties/obstacles in its, including applicability of the WHO Interim technical advice for inspection and issuance of SSCEC/SSCC (2007). Our study was conducted from January 1st to June 20th, 2008 and the methodology used included documentary analysis about the SSCEC/SSCC issued in Brazil and sanitary inspections on eight vessels (in six national ports) to assess possible problems/doubts in the WHO Guidelines.

The documentary analysis showed that 655 SSCEC/SSCC were issued in Brazil until this moment, being 653 of Control Exemption and four of Sanitation Control. The ports that more issued SSCEC/SSCC in Brazil were: Itaqui-MA(150), Rio de Janeiro-RJ(86) and Itaguaí-RJ(86). The main difficulties/doubts in the implementation of the WHO Guidelines have been: the "requirement" to inspect ships with empty holds; inspection of cargo holds is not part of routine inspection of national health authorities; and the lack of a standardized global language (system of codes) for the SSCC/SSCEC completion.

Finally, after this study the Brazilian Sanitary Surveillance Agency intends to suggest WHO a new model of SSCC/SSCEC and a system of numerical codes for completion of the Certificates, which would allow that the certificate can be used as a health history of vessels, thus improving the global system of sanitation control on ships.