Quarantine

Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian (seventeenth century Venetian) quarantena, meaning forty-day period. Quarantine can be applied to humans, but also to animals of various kinds.

The purpose of such quarantine-for-decontamination is to prevent the spread of contamination, and to contain the contamination such that others are not put at risk from a person fleeing a scene where contamination is suspect.

History

The separation of infected people in order to prevent the spread of disease was practised in many early societies.

The word "quarantine" originates from the Venetian dialect form of the Italian quaranta giorni, meaning 'forty days'. This is due to the 40 day isolation of ships and people prior to entering the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia - Croatia (formerly known as Ragusa). This was practiced as a measure of disease prevention related to the plague (Black Death). Between 1348 and 1359 the Black Death wiped out an estimated 30% of Europe's population, as well as a significant percentage of Asia's population. The original document from 1377, which is kept in the Archives of Dubrovnik, states that before entering the city, newcomers had to spend 30 days (a trentine) in a restricted location (originally nearby islands) waiting to see whether the symptoms of plague would develop. Later on, isolation was prolonged to 40 days and was called quarantine.

Other diseases lent themselves to the practice of quarantine before and after the devastation of the Plague. Those afflicted with leprosy were historically isolated from society, the attempts to check the invasion of syphilis in northern Europe about 1490, the advent of yellow fever in Spain at the beginning of the nineteenth century and the arrival of Asiatic cholera in 1831.

Venice took the lead in measures to check the spread of plague, having appointed three guardians of the public health in the first years of the Black Death (1348). The next record of preventive measures comes from Reggio in Modena in 1374. The first lazaret was founded by Venice in 1403, on a small island adjoining the city; in 1467 Genova followed the example of Venice; and in 1476 the old leper hospital of Marseille was converted into a plague hospital. The great lazaret of that city, perhaps the most complete of its kind, having been founded in 1526 on the island of Pomgue. The practice at all the Mediterranean lazarets was not different from the English procedure in the Levantine and North African trade. On the approach of cholera in 1831 some new lazarets were set up at western ports, notably a very extensive establishment near Bordeaux, afterwards turned to another use.

Basis in Starfleet

the USS Lantree under Quantantine

The Extra-Terrestrial Exposure Law (14 CFR §1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations) was the popular name for a United States administrative regulation promulgated in 1969 to prevent the spread of biological contamination from space. Implemented before the Apollo 11 mission, it provided the legal authority for a quarantine period for the returning astronauts. The regulation included a definition of exposure as"

Quarantining of astronauts on the first lunar missions was mandated in 1969 to prepare for "the remote possibility that they are harboring unknown lunar organisms that might endanger life on earth", and the Apollo 11 voyagers were kept in quarantine for 21 days after their return from the moon. After the completion of the Apollo 14 mission, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) stopped enforcing the regulation, though it remained on the books. On April 30, 1971, NASA's acting administrator, Dr. George M. Low, was quoted as saying,

The rule was formally removed from the Code of Federal Regulations in 1991.

However, with the discovery of life beyond Earth, a modified form of the Quarantine order was established. Under this regulation, Starfleet personnel are required to maintain quarantine procedures in place whenever there is a potential risk of hazardous infection to personnel. As a result of this regulation, specialized quarantine chambers are standard equipment aboard all starfleet vessels. In addition, should a hazardous infectious material be located on a planet, starbase or starship, Starfleet personnel are required to take all necessary actions to insure the integrity of a quarantine.

Notable Quarantines

• Vagra II under quarantine after the entity Armus killed Tasha Yar and sought a way off the planet. (TNG: "Skin of Evil")

• USS Lantree after the entire crew died from rapid aging caused by genetically engineered children at the Darwin Genetic Research Station in 2365. Later the Research station was also quarantined. (TNG: "Unnatural Selection")

• When Willie Potts was tricked into hiding due to his brother, Jake Potts, on Ogus II in 2367, Willie accidentally ingested parasites from a cove palm. In order to get medical assistance at Starbase 416, Willie had to be placed in quarantine. (TNG: "Brothers")

• In 2369 after several crewmembers including Miles O'Brien and Jadzia Dax suffered from the aphasia virus, Benjamin Sisko told Doctor Bashir that he wanted DS9 under emergency quarantine. (DS9: "Babel")

• In 2373, an Antidean transport's cargo was being held in quarantine aboard Deep Space 9. Doctor Julian Bashir was required to issue a health certificate to remove it. (DS9: "Doctor Bashir, I Presume")

• In 2407, the 52nd Fleet headquarters, Starbase Geneva was quarantined after the hate group Humans for Humanity released a genetically engineered virus aboard the station.

• In 2408, the planet Davros III and the Freighter Sky of Tomorrow were quarantined, after a Matron Nanoviral Pool developed from Borg Nanoprobes were released on the planet. The Opthidians in turn released a dedly virus into the planet's biosphere to destroy all life on the planet to trap the virus.

• In 2414, the USS Hades forced Deep Space 15 into a quarantine, after her command crew was infected by intelligent brain parasites.

Ship Quarantine

As part of a ship quarantine, red flashing beacons on the hull of the ship are activated and the a message was repeatedly broadcast on all frequencies: