Can CDC involuntarily quarantine people?
Isolation & Quarantine are measures that may be used to combat communicable diseases, such as pandemic influenza. Isolation is the physical separation of ill persons from healthy persons to prevent the spread of infection. Isolation is a common practice in healthcare facilities today, and there are different forms of isolation (contact, droplet, and airborne). The type of isolation measure used depends on the manner in which the disease can be spread from person to person. Quarantine is the physical separation of persons who are not ill but have been exposed (or potentially exposed) to an infectious agent. For some diseases, an infected person may be able to spread the disease before they show any signs of illness, and there are other diseases in which people may progress to illness very quickly and become infectious to others. However, there are very few situations in which quarantine would be both necessary and effective. Therefore, it is rarely used in the United States. The authori
