One of history’s oldest public health measures is the quarantine. The practice of separating the diseased from the healthy dates back to Biblical times when people with leprosy were isolated in colonies to prevent the spread of the disease. The first formal and government-sanctioned quarantine is thought to have occurred in 14th century Venice during the plague of the Black Death.

In the Americas, colonies implemented quarantine measures as early as the 17th century. After independence and the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, states adopted quarantines to combat spread of yellow fever. It wasn’t until 1796 that the federal government got into the act. In May of that year, the Congress passed a law requiring the federal government to cooperate with the states in enforcing their quarantines.

Three years later, on February 25, 1799, Congress repealed the 1796 act and replaced it with one establishing the first federal inspection system for maritime quarantines. In the 19th century, federal quarantine authority expanded. Today, the government can quarantine people “reasonably expected to be infected with or exposed to” any of nine diseases:

• Cholera;
• Diphtheria;
• Infectious tuberculosis;
• Plague;
• Smallpox;
• Yellow fever;
• Viral hemorrhage fevers (including Ebola);
• SARS; and
• Pandemic flu.

Fortunately, the development of anti-biotics and routine vaccinations has made quarantine largely unnecessary except as a last resort in extreme cases.

Note: For a fascinating firsthand account of the Yellow Fever epidemic that spurred the federal quarantine laws in 1799, check out the piece by Dr. Benjamin Rush, the Philadelphia physician who signed the Declaration of Independence, in the Tools section of SafetyXChange.

Story Tools:  Email This Post  Print This Post Top