• To provide a forum for interested epidemiologists to share their efforts and joint concerns about cross-border health concerns and the contribution of international health issues to the practice of epidemiology in the U.S.;
• To improve cross-border public health surveillance;
• To foster the practice of bi-national and multi-national epidemiology;
• To disseminate information on the distribution and determinants of health along U.S. borders; and
• To strengthen emergency preparedness along the north and south borders and other international points of entry.

Gil Chavez, former Chair of the Border/International Health Subcommittee and representing CSTE, coauthored the Technical Guidelines for U.S.-Mexico Coordination on Public Health Events of Mutual Interest. A binational technical working group was formed as part of implementing these guidelines, and position statement 11-SI-02 addressed implementing the guidelines and other issues of coordination and communication necessary for multinational public health surveillance.

The subcommittee discussed issues to standardize an approach to report cases of infectious diseases in a traveler who may have exposed others on an airplane or on a ship at the request of CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine (DGMQ). This effort led to position statement 11-CC-01, which provided a framework for bidirectional notification for communicable diseases on commercial conveyances to ensure DGMQ is notified.

• Participation in Binational Technical Working Group – Infectious Disease Section
• Participation in U.S.-Mexico Binational Communication Pathways Protocol – Pilot Reporting Project
• Representation on Association of Refugee Health Coordinators – Surveillance Subcommittee
• Representation on the National Information Exchange Model Pilot
• Representation at U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission meetings