Rosenberger LH, Riccio LM, Campbell KT, Politano AD, Sawyer RG. Quarantine, isolation, and cohorting: from cholera to Klebsiella.
Surg Infect (Larchmt) 2012;
13:69-73. [PMID:
22472002 DOI:
10.1089/sur.2011.067]
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Abstract
BACKGROUND
Isolation is defined as the separation of persons with communicable diseases from those who are healthy. This public health practice, along with quarantine, is used to limit the transmission of infectious diseases and provides the foundation of current-day cohorting.
METHODS
Review of the pertinent English-language literature.
RESULTS
Mass isolation developed during the medieval Black Death outbreaks in order to protect ports from the transmission of epidemics. In the mid-1800s, infectious disease hospitals were opened. It now is clear that isolation and cohorting of patients and staff interrupts the transmission of disease. Over the next century, with the discovery of penicillin and vaccines against many infectious agents, the contagious disease hospitals began to close. Today, we find smaller outbreaks of microorganisms that have acquired substantial resistance to antimicrobial agents. In the resource-limited hospital, a dedicated area or region of a unit may suffice to separate affected from unaffected patients.
CONCLUSION
Quarantine, or cohorting when patients are infected with the same pathogen, interrupts the spread of infections, just as the contagious disease hospitals did during the epidemics of the 18th and 19th centuries.
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