|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
CDC Proposes New Quarantine Rules for Travelers
Federal health officials hope that proposed rules for tracking travelers and expanding the health conditions under which they could be placed in quarantine would help slow the spread of a natural or bioterror-related disease outbreak, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Nov. 7). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the regulations yesterday. Final rules will be issued following a 60-day comment period. Federal law allows authorities to place into quarantine or isolation anyone “reasonably expected to be infected with or exposed to” any of the nine following diseases: cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola, SARS and pandemic influenza. Quarantine is used to describe the detention of people who might have been exposed to a disease but show no symptoms, while isolation is used for people who are clearly ill and potentially infectious. The criteria to suspect illness would be expanded under the new rules to include a temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher in combination with other symptoms, the Post reported. That would help ensure people suffering from pandemic flu do not slip by authorities. Quarantine would be used only if no other options exist. The strategy could be crucial in preventing the spread of infection from a bioterror agent that has been engineered for heightened contagiousness and resistance to drugs or vaccines, according to CDC documents. “We’re not talking about quarantining anybody for a sniffle or a cough,” said Martin Cetron, CDC global migration and quarantine chief. People could be detained for three days without a hearing under the proposed order, and possibly longer depending on the outcome of medical testing. Detention would last no longer than the time it takes for the threat of infection to pass, a period usually less than a month, the Post reported. The new rules would also require and airlines flying out of major airports and major cruise ship firms to ask passengers for their phone numbers, e-mail addresses and other information. That information and each traveler’s seat location would be maintained for no less than 60 days and would be passed onto the Centers for Disease Control upon request. Having easy access to passenger information would allow CDC officials to quickly contact anyone who might have been exposed to an infectious disease during travel. Anyone who refused to disclose the information would not be blocked from a flight or cruise. All information would be destroyed after one year. Ship and airplane captains under the new rules would also have to report deaths or serious illnesses, hopefully before reaching their destination, to the Centers for Disease Control.
| ||||||||||
Back to top
