Quarantine: An idea whose time may have come again

From American Medical News:

Public health experts urge today's physicians to think through issues raised by the prospect of the use of quarantine as a solution to pandemics that may be coming.

Issues such as personal liberty versus public health should be examined before they surface. Although typhoid has been supplanted by smallpox, severe acute respiratory syndrome and pandemic flu on today's physician watch lists, isolation and quarantine remain methods to be relied upon to keep infectious diseases in check.

"This historic approach to infection-control may still have a role today, although the human rights implications are troubling."