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Isolation and Quarantine Facts
Introduction:
To contain the spread of a contagious illness, public health authorities rely on
many strategies. Two of these are isolation and quarantine. Both aim
to lessen the likelihood that persons with an infection will spread it to
others. Both can be undertaken voluntarily or compelled by public health
authorities. Isolation applies to persons who are known to have an
illness, and quarantine applies to those who have been exposed to an illness but
who may or may not become ill.
Isolation: for people who are ill
Isolation refers to the separation of persons who have a specific infectious
illness from those who are healthy. Isolation allows for the treatment of
ill persons, and it protects healthy people from getting sick. People in
isolation may be cared for in their homes, in hospitals, or in designated
healthcare facilities. In most cases, isolation is voluntary; however,
federal, state, and local public health officials have the authority to compel
isolation of people with an infectious disease to protect the public.
Quarantine: for people who have been exposed
but are not ill
Quarantine refers to the separation and restriction of movement of persons
who, while not yet ill, have been exposed to an infectious agent and therefore
may become infectious. Quarantine may be used when:
 | a person or a defined group of people has been
exposed to a highly dangerous and highly contagious disease, |
| resources are available to care for
quarantined people, |
| resources are available to maintain the
quarantine and provide essential services. |
Quarantine includes a range of disease control
strategies that may be used by themselves or in combination including:
| short-term, voluntary home confinement |
| restrictions on travel of those who may have
been exposed |
| restrictions on entering into or out of an
area |
Other measures to control the spread of disease
may include:
| restriction on the assembly of groups of
people (for example: school events, concerts, etc) |
| cancellation of public events |
| suspension of public gatherings and closing
public places (such as theaters) |
| closure of transit systems or restrictions on
travel by air, rail or water. |
These measures would be used in combination with
other public health tools, such as:
| increased disease surveillance and symptom
monitoring |
| diagnosis and treatment of those who become
ill |
| preventive treatment for quarantined
individuals, including vaccination or mediation treatment depending on the
disease |
In some cases partial quarantine (that is,
quarantine of many exposed persons but not all of them) can be effective in
slowing the rate of the spread of disease, especially is it can be combined with
other measures. Quarantine is more likely to involve limited numbers of
exposed persons in small areas than to involve large numbers of persons in a
whole neighborhood or city. The small areas can be thought of as "rings"
drawn around disease cases. Examples of "rings" include:
| people on an airplane or cruise ship on which
a passenger is ill with a suspected contagious disease and quarantine can
limit exposure to others |
| people in a stadium, theater or similar
setting where an intentional release of a contagious disease has occurred |
| people who have contact with an infected
person |
In the event of a large-scale disease outbreak or
influenza pandemic, there may be many small "rings" of quarantine.
Examples of the use of Isolation and
Quarantine
Isolation is a standard procedure used in hospitals today for patients with
tuberculosis (TB) and certain other infectious diseases. During the 2003
SARS outbreak, patients were isolated until they were no longer infectious.
This allowed patients to receive appropriate care and it helped contain the
spread of the illness.
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