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Homeland Security To Quarantine Swine Flu Carriers
April 29, 2009 - 7:46am
www.antemedius.com...
Homeland Security is preparing to quarantine people with confirmed swine flu infections, according to a newly released memo obtained by CBS News.
[The memo] says: "The Department of Justice has established legal federal authorities pertaining to the implementation of a quarantine and enforcement. Under approval from HHS, the Surgeon General has the authority to issue quarantines."
Federal quarantine authority is limited to diseases listed in presidential executive orders; President Bush added "novel" forms of influenza with the potential to create pandemics in Executive Order 13375. Anyone violating a quarantine order can be punished by a $250,000 fine and a one-year prison term.
In 2005, the Bush administration prepared guidelines similar to what's currently being circulated by DHS.
In the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza (PDF link), it outlined "public health guidance" that includes barring people from social gatherings and travel.
As of this writing, there are no confirmed deaths linked directly to swine flu, though U.S. officials believe it only a matter of time.
In the mean-time, this is not something to get panicked over. Even the Centers for Disease Control has stopped short of issuing travel restrictions and said that border closures -- the likes of which were enforced during the SARS outbreak -- are not necessary.
Finally, and this one's a little dose of reality, over 13,000 Americans have died just this year from the "regular" flu and complications thereof.
More at Link...
DHS Sets Guidelines For Possible Swine Flu Quarantines
April 28, 2009 5:12 PM
www.cbsnews.com...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has sent a memo to some health care providers noting procedures to be followed if the swine flu outbreak eventually makes quarantines necessary.
DHS Assistant Secretary Bridger McGaw circulated the swine flu memo, which was obtained by CBSNews.com, on Monday night. It says: "The Department of Justice has established legal federal authorities pertaining to the implementation of a quarantine and enforcement. Under approval from HHS, the Surgeon General has the authority to issue quarantines."
McGaw appears to have been referring to the section of federal law that allows the Surgeon General to detain and quarantine Americans "reasonably believed to be infected" with a communicable disease. A Centers for Disease Control official said on Tuesday that swine flu deaths in the U.S. are likely.
Federal quarantine authority is limited to diseases listed in presidential executive orders; President Bush added "novel" forms of influenza with the potential to create pandemics in Executive Order 13375. Anyone violating a quarantine order can be punished by a $250,000 fine and a one-year prison term.
A Homeland Security spokesman on Tuesday did not have an immediate response to followup questions about the memo, which said "DHS is consulting closely with the CDC to determine appropriate public health measures."
CDC: Quarantine and Migration Health: Legal Authorities for Isolation Quarantine
www.cdc.gov...
Federal law
The federal government derives its authority for isolation and quarantine from the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Under section 361 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S. Code § 264), the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services is authorized to take measures to prevent the entry and spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the United States and between states. The authority for carrying out these functions on a daily basis has been delegated to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
By Executive Order of the President, federal isolation and quarantine are authorized for these communicable diseases:
• Cholera
• Diphtheria
• Infectious tuberculosis
• Plague
• Smallpox
• Yellow fever
• Viral hemorrhagic fevers
• SARS
• Flu that can cause a pandemic The President can revise this list by Executive Order.
CDC’s role
Under 42 Code of Federal Regulations parts 70 and 71, CDC is authorized to detain, medically examine, and release persons arriving into the United States and traveling between states who are suspected of carrying these communicable diseases. As part of its federal authority, CDC routinely monitors persons arriving at U.S. land border crossings and passengers and crew arriving at U.S. ports of entry for signs or symptoms of communicable diseases. When alerted about an ill passenger or crew member by the pilot of a plane or captain of a ship, CDC may detain passengers and crew as necessary to investigate whether the cause of the illness on board is a communicable disease.
Enforcement
If a quarantinable disease is suspected or identified, CDC may issue a federal isolation or quarantine order. Public health authorities at the federal, state, local, and tribal levels may sometimes seek help from police or other law enforcement officers to enforce a public health order. U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Coast Guard officers are authorized to help enforce federal quarantine orders. Breaking a federal quarantine order is punishable by fines and imprisonment. Federal law allows the conditional release of persons from quarantine if they comply with medical monitoring and surveillance.
Federal quarantine rarely used
Large-scale isolation and quarantine was last enforced during the influenza (“Spanish Flu”) pandemic in 1918–1919. In recent history, only a few public health events have prompted federal isolation or quarantine orders:
• In 1963, a passenger arriving into the United States was placed under a federal quarantine order as a suspected case of smallpox.
• In 2007, a traveler with drug-resistant TB was placed in isolation.
During the 2003 outbreak of SARS, CDC did not issue isolation or quarantine orders. However, CDC did conduct active surveillance, visual screening of passengers, and handed out Travel Health Alert Notices.
Many health experts say WHO's pandemic declaration could have come weeks earlier but the agency became bogged down by politics. In May, several countries urged WHO not to declare a pandemic, fearing it would cause social and economic turmoil.
"This is WHO finally catching up with the facts,