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Article: Quarantine
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Public Health
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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QUARANTINE
Quarantine is defined as a restriction of the activities of healthy persons or animals who have been exposed to a communicable disease. The aim is to prevent transmission of the disease from potentially infected persons to healthy persons during the incubation period. Quarantine can take two forms: absolute or complete quarantine, which consists of a limitation of freedom for a period equal to the longest usual incubation period of the disease; and modified quarantine, which involves selective or partial limitation of movement, based on known differences in susceptibility. Examples of a modified quarantine are the exclusion of children from school and the confining of ...