QUARANTINE IT !

      Can you recall what your mom did when you had measles? She probably kept you in your room right? She also must have warned your brothers and sisters not to go near you. What about when you had chicken pox or mumps? If the first symptoms were detected in school, then your teacher must have advised you to stay at home until you were well enough. You shouldn't have felt bad. Actually, your mother was just trying to prevent the germs from spreading to your brothers and sisters. Youe teacher was also doing the same thing. They were both trying to quarantine or isolate the germs. Otherwise, the would spread and infected other persons around you.

      Quarantine is practised even in hospitals. Patients with infectious diseases, are not placed in ordinary wards or hospital rooms. They are quarantined or placed in "isolation rooms." Germs which cause diseases are found almost everywhere. Some of them may be carried by the air you breathe, the food you eat or the water that you drink. Some diseases are passed from person to person, or from animals to people. An example of this is chicken pox. Once you get the germs from someone, you might not immediately feel the signs. The germs, however, are already inside your body and are multiplying rapidly. You must have read about the outbreak of bubonic plaque in India and the Ebola virus in Zaire. How do you think did the victims catch these diseases? In the case of the bubonic plaque, the victims got it from infected rats. On the other hand, The deadly Ebola virus was said to be transmitted only through direct contact with the victim's blood or other body fluids.

      What then can be done to prevent the spread of these diseases? The same as when someone has measles or chicken pox --- the victims must be separated or isolated from the healthy ones. This is what we call quarantine. Whenever an epidemic occurs, people may be prevented from leaving the area because they may carry the germs and spread the disease to other areas. This is one way of implementing quarantine measures. The best that they could do then is to observe safe and sanitary practices while dealing with the sick. Maintaining a clean environment will also help.

      If somebody manages to leave the area, he is usually isolated or quarantined upon reaching his destination. The length of time that is done depends on how soon the symptoms of the disease start to show. In certain areas of our country today, the foot and mouth disease is occuring once again in pigs and cattle. Since there is the possibility that this disease could be passed on -- in a different form -- to humans, don't you think these animals, too, should be quarantined?