Preliminary Results of Ship Sanitation Inspections, Taiwan, 2011-2017

In accordance with International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR 2005) and Regulations Governing Quarantine at Ports, 10 international and specifically designated ports in Taiwan have issued 6,802 Ship Sanitation Certificates (SSC) from 2011 to 2017. Among the abovementioned SSCs, 7.1% ships were issued a Ship Sanitation Control Certificate (SSCC), indicating higher public health risks. Among all ports, the highest number and proportion (14%) of SSCCs are issued by National Kaohsiung Port. Preliminary results showed that the sanitation of oil tankers and general cargo ships were worse than that of other types of ships, but the locations and reasons of sanitation defects found in various ships were similar. Thus, we recommended that more manpower or sufficient inspection time shall be assessed and arranged while carrying out ship sanitation inspections such as oil tankers and general cargo ships.
In conclusion, 4.6 sanitation defects are noted in each SSCC on average, which was 23 times more than those found in each Ship Sanitation Control Exemption Certificate (SSCEC) on average. The main locations with sanitation defects included kitchen, warehouse and food storage areas. The main reasons of sanitation defects were vectors such as cockroaches and flies found. In addition, we recommended revising the current ship sanitation inspection information system in order to record inspections completely. Moreover, the complete data could be provided back to the ports and compared with data from other countries.