Isolation (health care)

In hospitals or health care areas, isolation is one of the many measures that can be taken to stop the spread of certain diseases as it would lower the amount of people being infected by it. The most recent case are people being forced by law to stay at home as schools and jobs are closed due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. This is different than quarantine as this is for people who have not been infected.

What is it?

According to the CDC, isolation is the act of separating a sick individual with a contagious disease from healthy individuals without that contagious disease in order to protect the public from getting the contagious disease.^[1]

Why is it important?

Contagious diseases can spread to others through many forms. Four types of infectious disease transmission can happen: (1) contact transmission, which can be through direct physical contact (2) vehicular transmission, which involves contaminated objects, (3) airborne transmission, which involves spread of infectious particles through air, and (4) vector transmission, which is spread through insects or animals.^[2] Since diseases can spread through many forms of transmission it is important for people who are not infected to stay at home so that they won't get sick. For those who are sick then it is important for them to quarantine to make sure they don't spread the disease.

Isolation (health Care) Media

The Aeromedical Biological Containment System (ABCS) is an air-transportable high isolation module for movement of highly contagious patients.
Traffic sign in South Carolina encouraging people to 'stay home' during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Isolation wards may need to be hastily improvised during epidemics such as in this image of WHO workers in Lagos, Nigeria managing Ebola patients in 2014.
The new Ebola isolation ward in Lagos, Nigeria provides more space and better treatment.

Related pages

References

↑ "Quarantine and Isolation". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2018-10-03. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
↑ Walker HK, Hall WD, Hurst JW, McCue JD (1990). Walker HK, Dallas W, Willis J (eds.). The Contagious Patient. Clinical Methods: The History, Physical, and Laboratory Examinations (3rd ed.). Butterworths. ISBN 978-0-409-90077-4. PMID 21250179.

Other websites

Chart showing recommendations for various forms of isolation

[1] "Quarantine and Isolation". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2018-10-03. Retrieved 2019-05-01.

[2] Walker HK, Hall WD, Hurst JW, McCue JD (1990). Walker HK, Dallas W, Willis J (eds.). The Contagious Patient. Clinical Methods: The History, Physical, and Laboratory Examinations (3rd ed.). Butterworths. ISBN 978-0-409-90077-4. PMID 21250179.

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