The definition of “quarantine” was probably heard by everyone. This word is used everywhere. We often encounter quarantine in the territories of educational, medical or other government institutions. What is quarantine and what is the history of its appearance?
The essence of quarantine
The definition of “quarantine” has two meanings:
- A sanitary facility used to isolate people, goods or animals from epidemic-infected areas.
- Isolation of patients or people in contact with patients in order to prevent the spread of the epidemic.
The purpose of quarantine is to isolate the outbreak and counteract the further spread of the disease. Modern quarantine institutions have all the technical means to prevent epidemics:
- disinfectants;
- special isolators for patients;
- sanitary and bacteriological laboratories.
Separately, it is worth highlighting quarantine measures regarding animals. When fauna from other countries is imported from other countries, especially if they have been removed from the natural environment, they are placed in the quarantine zone for a while, since they can be carriers of diseases that are dangerous not only for other animals, but also for people.
Origin history
The definition of “quarantine” was first used in Italy in the 15th century. When a plague epidemic occurred to stop its spread on the European continent, all ships that came from infected places were detained, and people were not allowed to land on land for 40 days. This term was called quarantine.
Later they began to build special institutions in which they identified the infected and those who were under suspicion. In those days, the definition of "quarantine" meant limited isolated territories in which patients were located.
In the 19th century, new diseases came to Europe: yellow fever and cholera. Then quarantine became associated not only with the plague, but also with any foreign diseases. In 1903, at the Paris International Conference, a series of documents governing quarantine were adopted as a set of health actions.
Quarantine these days
Quarantine measures are often used to prevent epidemics today. Thanks to such actions, in modern times, we have managed to cope with such terrible epidemics as bird and swine flu, Ebola and others.
A phenomenon that is familiar to almost every citizen when local authorities quarantine schools, temporarily stopping the learning process. The most common reason quarantine is introduced in educational institutions is respiratory infections transmitted by airborne droplets. These diseases spread fairly quickly in crowded places.
In schools, quarantine is imposed when the epidemiological threshold of patients in a certain territory is exceeded. It is installed by the local service of Rospotrebnadzor, based on the number of cases per thousand population. In 2015, directors of educational institutions received the right to impose quarantine in a separate class or in the entire school.
Thanks to the timely introduction of quarantine these days, it is possible to avoid the uncontrolled spread of dangerous infections to large areas. Thus, quarantine is an effective tool that serves to stop the spread of epidemics.