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History of Quarantine

As the world learns a new way of life involving self-isolation amid the global spread of coronavirus, the concept of quarantine has been brought to the forefront. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, quarantine means “to put or hold in isolation to prevent the spread of disease” and that is exactly what we are experiencing right now. Many countries and several states in the U.S. have imposed mandatory isolation of its population to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Although the mass quarantine imposed today might be unprecedented in history, quarantine is certainly not a new concept.

The word itself is derived from "quaranta giorni", which in Italian means 40 days. It originated sometime in the mid-14th century, when all ships coming into Venice were isolated before passengers and crew were allowed to disembark during the Black Death plague epidemic. However, the practice of quarantine dates further back, all the way to ancient times. Ancient Greeks were isolating sick people to stop diseases from spreading even before they knew what was causing them. The 40 days period is attributed to Hippocrates, who theorized that 40 days was the tipping point for any disease.

Quarantine guard ship in 1830 and Grand Princess cruise ship quarantined in 2020. Image: TIME

The earliest recorded quarantine occurred in A.D. 549 during the Justinian Plague when the Byzantine emperor enacted a law to isolate people arriving from plague-infested regions. The book of Levictus also describes how to quarantine people suffering from leprosy. The Old Testament describes the process of quarantine:
“Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has a defiling skin disease or a discharge of any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean because of a dead body. Send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.”

Isolation of sick person in 1660. Image: NOVA

So while the concept of isolation might feel strange to us, it was a common occurrence in the past, and it apparently worked in maintaining public health. It was used as recently as 2014 during the Ebola epidemic in Africa. What is different now is that because the coronavirus is so contagious even when a person is asymptomatic, it is not enough to quarantine only the infected, but important to isolate everyone. So here we are with a new way of life where social distancing (possibly the most often used word right now!), distance learning, working from home, and hoarding of toilet paper are the new norm.


Bibliography:
Roos, Dave. “Social Distancing and Quarantine Were Used in Medieval Times to Fight the Black Death.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 25 Mar. 2020, www.history.com/news/quarantine-black-death-medieval.

Tyson, Peter. “A Short History of Quarantine.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 12 Oct. 2004, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/short-history-of-quarantine/. 

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