Talk:Quarantine

Cleanup
[My notes from Cleanup] The pre-ToC section is too long and a jumble of half-cited assertions, while the rest is typical 1911 EB: out of date, Anglo-centric, and with overlong paragraphs. This article may well become quite important over the next year or two, so current information would be great. -- Mpt 03:30, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

WTF?!?!? My comment on the talk page was reverted? The term Old Testament is not used on Wikipedia. This is part of the style guide. Someone change it. 01:44, 20 May 2011 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.129.235.66 (talk)

Origins of the word
At the top it says 'quarantine' is derived from Italian, yet later on it says it comes from medieval French. Did it come from French first? If somebody knows, please change it. Saccerzd 17:23, 16 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I haven't added this myself, but... from the diary of Samuel Pepys, entry from Thursday 26 November 1663


 * "... The plague, it seems, grows more and more at Amsterdam; and we are going upon making of all ships coming from thence and Hambrough, or any other infected places, to perform their Quarantine (for thirty days as Sir Rd. Browne expressed it in the order of the Council, contrary to the import of the word, though in the general acceptation it signifies now the thing, not the time spent in doing it) in Holehaven, a thing never done by us before." -- Lovingboth 08:30, 27 November 2006 (UTC)


 * I've edited the page, following this dictionary website entry: Italian quarantina, from quaranta (giorni), forty (days), from Latin quadrgint; see kwetwer- in Indo-European roots. quaran·tina·ble adj. -- The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  -- Kev 21:07, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

The Merriam-Webster clearly states the French etymology of the word: "partly modification of French quarantaine, from Old French, from quarante forty". The article should mention this etymology to be more accurate. -- 10 November 2009 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.109.55.143 (talk) 10:27, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

There is an internal conflict in the page. Under Etymology, it says


 * The word quarantine comes from quarantena, meaning "fourteen days", used in 14th-15th-century Venetian language ...

but further down :


 * The word "quarantine" originates from quarantena, the Venetian language form, meaning "forty days".

Given the cited sources, it seems that 40, not 14, is the correct number. 199.46.251.141 (talk) 17:33, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

Protecting who?
I am not a doctor, but it seems that quarantine is about protecting the community from something dangerous, not about protecting something vulnerable from the risks that everyday life poses. As such, I think the following are not examples of quarantine?


 * Ted DeVita had severe aplastic anemia and lived in a sterile hospital environment for 8 years due to his compromised immune system.


 * David Vetter suffered from a rare genetic disorder and lived his entire life in an isolated sterile environment.

I could be wrong. But if these are both examples of quarantine, then we need to rewrite the intro. Regards, Ben Aveling 10:12, 5 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I was more bold than you since I have deleted these items even before seeing your contribution on the talk page. Of coure you are right! Why it took so long to be fixed? 92.144.58.63 (talk) 20:20, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

Legal basis
Some discussion of he legal and historical basis of quarantine power would be appropriate

US issues first federal quarantine order since 1963
See this Reuters article for details. 81.159.58.211 22:48, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia now has an article on this: 2007 tuberculosis scare

Contemporary use of the quarantine (Lima) flag
I've even heard references to the yellow Quebec flag as a 'quarantine flag' in yachting, though it is still used to request entry into foreign waters. Could anyone shed some light on this? --203.147.67.94 (talk) 00:17, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

,mm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.93.177.172 (talk) 18:11, 14 February 2008 (UTC)


 * International maritime signal flags shows the contemporary meaning of signal flags. As this Quarantine article mentions (Control-F search for "flag"), a yellow-and-black flag flown alone presently warns that the ship is quarantined.  The all-yellow "Q" flag presently announces no illness on board and requests entry to a port; this article mentions an old British requirement that ships liable to quarantine fly a yellow flag when near Britain, ("liable" implies certain ships including those without illness) and I suspect that somehow evolved into an announcement of lack of illness.  The term "yellow jack" has been used historically for some sort of quarantine flag but we don't have an unambigious description of that flag.  -- SEWilco (talk) 19:47, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Islamocentric Bias
The quotes attributed to those claiming to quote Muhammed should be re-written without the hagiographic parenthetical content. He's just another entry on Wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.121.212.143 (talk) 13:24, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

I have to disagree with the above comment. It is traditional for Muslims to do so when referring to any prophet (not just Mohammed). If that is going to be the case then we're going to have to remove "Saint" from every person who is described as such -- and that is patently absurd. Dtschanz (talk) 10:19, 9 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm cool with calling him the Prophet Mohammed, just as I'm cool with Saint Paul. The Islamocentric language goes far beyond that, and it's patently absurd to burden all of Wikipedia with it. 192.12.184.2 (talk) 21:50, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

He's just another entry. Stop pushing your religion on other people. --65.5.204.50 (talk) 00:35, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

AIDS
Some ultra-conservative politicians apparently wanted to quarantine AIDS patients during the 1980s, a suggestion that had a sizable hint of homophobia attached to it. I am thinking of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was in favour of this earlier on in his political career. ADM (talk) 13:22, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

The definition of the term needs to be formally made.....
because areas, places, persons etc all can be quarantined depends on the level of infections--222.64.25.74 (talk) 00:03, 7 February 2010 (UTC) --222.64.25.74 (talk) 00:11, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Premises - http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/objtwr/imported_assets/content/pw/q/quarantinewa_reg_prem.pdf

Does anyone know what kind of laboratories has to be quarantined...biological laboratory...?--222.64.25.74 (talk) 00:14, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Animal --222.64.219.241 (talk) 01:30, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?as_q=animal+quarantine&num=10&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=title&as_sauthors=&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&as_sdt=1.&as_sdtp=on&as_sdts=5&hl=en
 * Pet - http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&q=allintitle%3A+pet+quarantine&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_vis=0

Plant
 * http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?as_q=plant+quarantine&num=10&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=title&as_sauthors=&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&as_sdt=1.&as_sdtp=on&as_sdts=5&hl=en

Human being --222.64.219.241 (talk) 01:19, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?as_q=human+being+quarantine&num=10&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=title&as_sauthors=&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&as_sdt=1.&as_sdtp=on&as_sdts=5&hl=en

Please link the topics of....
Biosafety and Biosecurity to this article--222.64.219.241 (talk) 02:16, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Avicenna
I deleted the passages raarding Avicenna becuase the source is partisan, and therfore, biased.

The source is: David W. Tschanz, MSPH, PhD (August 2003). "Arab Roots of European Medicine", Heart Views 4 (2)

This article claims the origin of the Quarantine is found in the work of Avicenna ,when we all know that Quarantine originated in Venice during the Black Death. Even if Avicenna advocated the isolation from the sick peple to avoid contagion, i doubt it was for fory days,like in Venice.Furthermore,as this article says, 2500 years before Avicenna there was a practice of separating sick people.I took the Bible and voila!! it was there.So this is a practice with a long,long,long history.

But wait,there´s more: David W. Tschanz is a scholar who lives in Saudi Arabia and works for the state owned oil company Saudi Aramco.Can we trust a shcolar who works for a saudi arabian company, and livesin Saudi Arabia, in a matter like Arab contributions to Europe??.Besides, just reading the article makes every person with a bit of critical thinking aware of the bias.

Therefore, the infromation regadring Avicenna and Ibn Kahtima will be removed.Unless better sources are provided, of course.--Knight1993 (talk) 15:45, 1 May 2010 (UTC)

==> Wikipedia Outsider speaking here: "Just my five cents: I am also uncertain whether it was his idea, to be honest. So while we agree on the conclusion and on being skeptical, what I want to stress though is that you are giving the wrong reasons. 1. Avicenna wrote the medical textbook that dominated Europe and the Arabic world for centuries. 2. There is a long tradition in Islam that something has to be done forty times or forty days etc. So the exact number of 40 is significant culturally incredibly widespread. The number forty alone gives credibility to the idea that the origin of quarantine has to be sought in Islamic culture. 3. A scholar working in an Islamic country deserves just as much credit and credibility than any other scholar. That is a stupid argument you are bringing up, to say the least. If you want to verify his credibility, then reading the article and assessing the publication organ (i.e. the journal) is the way to go."

Interestingly ibn Sina (980 - 1037) came up with the concept of isolation to prevent the spread of disease and it was known in Arabic as "the forty" (Arbainya). He is known in the West as Avincena.

Traders from Venice took this knowledge back with them and translated Arbainya into their own language, calling it 'quarantena' in Italian. This knowledge was implemented during the Black Death.

A lot of early scientific discoveries which the world now depends on and which our current science has built on were made in Persia, Egypt and the Middle East. The fact that you don't like Arabs and mistakenly relate Islam to Arabs is irrelevant. Please check your prejudices at the door.

Bias
"Up until now it was becoming a less strict policy but with the harmful chemicals and diseases coming from Chinese products it is becoming strict again."

This sentence in the United States section of Legal is biased, is not from a NPOV and unnecessary. Could someone with editing rights remove it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.98.70.49 (talk) 17:45, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

Flag Image
The image for the flag is L, lima: Flown separately, it is used to denote, "I have or had some dangerous, infectious disease on board."

perhaps a better, more appropriate flag would be Q, Quebec: In foreign waters flown separately, it is hoisted on quarantine hospitals. Hoisted when entering ports it denotes "I have a clean bill of health, but am liable to quarantine."

The Q flag is more representative of the quarantine condition.

Wdavislee (talk) 18:10, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

Etymology
What is the etymology of the word? An unreferenced etymology has been removed from our Old Calton Cemetery article: Does anyone have a WP:RS? --Mais oui! (talk) 13:04, 2 January 2012 (UTC)
 * "Prior to this date a separate leper colony had existed on the hill, tended by the friars, but these really required a better facility. Numbers had greatly increased in 1568, following an outbreak of plague. Infected persons had to spend 40 days here to be declared clear of the disease. Those 40 evenings give rise to the term quarantine, from Franco-Scots quarant (40) e’en (evenings)."

Typhoid Mary
I think typhoid Mary was not quarantined but isolated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.224.152.103 (talk) 11:35, 1 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Clearly, both Mary Mallon and Andrew Speaker were medically isolated because they were not suspected of having an illness--they were known to be infected. The whole purpose of quarantine is to allow a disease to run its course so that others will not be exposed to it. Mallon was isolated because there was no pharmaceutical treatment for typhoid at that time and she refused surgery. Speaker was isolated during the initial phase of his treatment, which included surgical removal of part of his lung. If there are no reasonable objections, I will delete their names from the article, for the sake of consistency, as the introduction states: "The term is often erroneously used to mean medical isolation, which is 'to separate ill persons who have a communicable disease from those who are healthy.'" Cmacauley (talk) 19:21, 12 March 2017 (UTC)


 * The same holds for the case of Robert Daniels, who was isolated because he was considered to be noncompliant with treatment of his XDR-TB. Cmacauley (talk) 19:41, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

Auschwitz-Birkenau
Part of Auschwitz was a quarantine camp, one reason being typhus, which was rampant in Poland during world war one: http://www.scrapbookpages.com/AuschwitzScrapbook/Tour/Birkenau/Birkenau01A.html This should be mentioned in the article --41.150.175.109 (talk) 22:18, 22 September 2016 (UTC)

Plant disease quarantine
Not only with humans but also for animals and plants quarantine is done. Quarantine is also done with diseased plant or infected plant samples. 2409:4060:2017:F88E:A5E0:8244:A65:A7F2 (talk) 13:17, 30 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I had to look this up to learn more about this subject. Apparently plant quarantine is practiced. Please see https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/planthealth/import-information/SA_Quarantine_Treatments/CT_us_plant_quarantine_programs Jurisdicta (talk) 21:44, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

"Quoranteen" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Quoranteen. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 August 25 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Hog Farm Talk 19:40, 25 August 2021 (UTC)

Történelem
A Karantén szép magyar fordítás eredménye, ugyan is a Quaranten 40 napi elzárást jelent. 4x10 nap. 2A01:36D:1201:8E8:1DEF:8E17:F3F2:791 (talk) 01:32, 29 December 2021 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Research Seminar in Digital and Public History
— Assignment last updated by PHKJIU (talk) 02:43, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

Talmud
There is a talmud reference as well https://www.torahmusings.com/2020/03/talmudic-advice-on-epidemics/?ssp=1&darkschemeovr=1&setlang=en-ZA&safesearch=moderate

In Bava Qamma 60b(https://www.sefaria.org/Bava_Kamma.60b.2?lang=bi), it says when there's a plague, gather your feet(meaning don't spend too much time outside of your home) 105.184.11.130 (talk) 11:26, 18 June 2023 (UTC)