Border screening might be conducted for reasons other than preventing or delaying an epidemic. It might provide public assurance and confi dence that something is being done (14) . The communication of health information and advice on how to seek treatment is consistently recommended as a pandemic prevention strategy (12, 15) and is usually delivered as part of border screening programs. These benefi ts need to be balanced against the considerable resources used, opportunity cost (resources used for this activity and thereby unavailable for other activities), uncertain effectiveness, and inconvenience of border screening.