Material or products physically isolated from production, marked and controlled until formally authorized for release. Materials segregated and withheld from use lots, batches, or other portions of components, packaging components, in-process materials, or products whose disposition must be determined by qualified personnel. Suitability for use must be determined by quality control personnel.
A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals, and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been exposed to a communicable disease, yet do not have a confirmed medical diagnosis. It is distinct from medical isolation, in which those confirmed to be infected with a communicable disease are separated, or isolated, from the healthy population.
The concept of quarantine is known to have been practiced around the world throughout history. Notable quarantines in modern history include the village of Eyam in 1665 during the bubonic plague outbreak in England; East Samoa during the 1918 flu pandemic; the Diphtheria outbreak during the 1925 serum run to Nome, the 1972 Yugoslav smallpox outbreak, the 2002-2004 SARS outbreak, the 2013-2016 Western African Ebola epidemic, and extensive quarantines applied throughout the world during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ethical and practical considerations must be considered in the application of quarantine to people. Practice differs from country to country, as different countries vest the authority to quarantine their citizens and other persons under a variety of scenarios at different levels of government, with wide variation in quarantine enforcement mechanisms.
In some countries, quarantine is just one of many measures governed by legislation relating to the broader concept of biosecurity. For example, Australian biosecurity is mostly governed by the single overarching Biosecurity Act 2015. However, that is not the only Australian law touching on quarantine; Section 107 of the Constitution preserves states' broad residual legislative powers, including public health powers, and Section 51(ix) gives the Commonwealth power to legislate with respect to quarantine—that power is generally concurrent rather than exclusive. As a result, both the Commonwealth and the states can enact quarantine laws, with Commonwealth law prevailing in cases of inconsistency.
English
Alternative forms
- Quarantine, quarentine, quarantin, quaranteen, quarantain, quarantaine, quarrentine, quarantene, quarentene, quarentyne, querentyne (obsolete)
Etymology
From Medieval Latin quarentena and quarentīna (“40-day period, Lent”) via Middle English quarentine, Norman quarenteine, French quarenteine, and Italian quarantina, via proposed
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