Quarantine: An Essential Tool to Combat Contagious Diseases - Essay Sample

Introduction

From a nursing perspective and a medical point of view as a whole, quarantine refers to the process of restricting the movement of people as well as goods to help in the prevention of a particular disease, a virus, pest, or any other microorganism that can be harmful to the lives of individuals (Brooks et al., 2020). It is a term that has been widely used in connection to contiguous diseases such as the plague and the Covid-19, among other communicable diseases. Quarantine as a word has, however, had a different meaning from the non-medical point of view (Nussbaumer-Streit et al., 2020). Different people not affiliated to a medical setting have used it to mean isolation of people already infected with a contagious disease, something that has caused isolation from those who successfully undergo the quarantine period and be safe, for instance, in the case of Covid-19 pandemic.

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The History of The Tern Quarantine

The terminology quarantine can be traced back in the 14th -the 15th century, and it is a word that comes from quarantine, meaning forty days. It has Venetian language origin, and it was used to denote the period that all the ships were required to be isolated before the passengers on board as well as the crew could be allowed to go ashore during the epidemic of Black Death plague. The epidemic wiped away close to 30% of the European population and a significant percentage of the population in Asia (Weber, 2019). In the modern history, different epidemics have been observed, including yellow fever in the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries, cholera and smallpox epidemics where quarantine has been one of the important measures used to control the spread of these contiguous diseases (Weber, 2019). The word has since then been used, and it has been a strategy in the management of epidemic conditions, including the coronavirus pandemic that is currently affecting the world to help in curbing the spread of the condition and thus the ability to combat it.

The Word Quarantine From The Experts' Perspective and Its Significance

The experts from the nursing profession look at quarantine as a way of separating people who have been suspected of contracting a given contagious disease to avoid the spread of the condition in the event they have contracted the disease. There are certain diseases with a prolonged incubation period, and thus, people who may have contracted the disease may show signs and symptoms later despite being infectious (Du et al., 2020). As a way of curbing such scenarios, quarantine can be important in ensuring that these people are monitored throughout the incubation period to ascertain whether they are positive to the condition or not. The process is to help in breaking the chain as far as the transmission of the disease from one person to another is concerned. People put in the quarantine may likely not have contracted the disease but at a high risk of contracting the condition. For instance, in the case of Covid-19, people who traveled from countries reporting the condition may be required to undergo quarantine for fourteen days to help in ruling out whether they have contracted the condition or not and thus help in managing its spread and effects (Klement, 2018). The knowledge of the term from the experts' point of view has been important in reducing the contact tracing for people who may have been infected by a communicable disease.

Quarantine as a term and a strategy in nursing have helped in the improvement of care provided to patients in the events of pandemics. They are having a large number of people suffering from a contagious condition that may strain nurses in their process of providing care to the patients. Quarantine ha, therefore, been significant in ensuring continued quality nursing care in the events of pandemics. It has also been essential to helping in the control of the spread of diseases that can overstrain the overall healthcare system. Communicable conditions can be challenging to control if given a chance to infect as many people as possible. Quarantine has, therefore, been crucial in breaking the chains in the spread of contiguous diseases and thus enable easy control.

The General Public Understanding of Quarantine

The general public has a different understanding of the term quarantine. The general public has used the word to refer to the separation of people with the contiguous disease to prevent its spread. To them, they use the word quarantine to refer to isolation. Isolation and quarantine are two different terms that cannot be used interchangeably. The general public believes that those going for quarantine are those already infected with the condition and, therefore, must be separated to prevent the spread of the condition. The understanding and the knowledge of the term quarantine among the general public has been associated with different impacts. Increased cases of stigma for those who successfully undergoes the quarantine period is likely to be observed. To the public, any individual from quarantine is believed to be favorable to a particular condition, and thus, people may fear any form of interaction with him or her.

The differences in knowledge and the understanding of the term quarantine among the experts and the general public bring about a gap that makes it difficult to fight any pandemic condition that may be highly infectious. Whereas quarantine is an essential aspect in the management of contagious diseases, several members of the public initially at risk of having contracted the condition may not be willing to undertake the process. They may fear a lot of stigmas and the fact that undertaking the process means one is infected with the condition based on their perspective (Du et al., 2020). People will always be in self-denial more so when signs and symptoms of a particular condition are not evident. Individuals will always seek medical attention when they start experiencing signs and symptoms of the disease. The knowledge gap in understanding the concept of quarantine can, therefore, be a hindrance in the management of pandemics, where quarantine plays an essential role.

Conclusion

Quarantine is a word that has been used differently between nursing as a profession and the general public. As a word used in the healthcare sector and essential in the management of health crises, it is something that imposes danger to the management of pandemics. The management of health crises requires proper coordination and understanding among the healthcare providers and the general public. However, when specific issues arise where the differences occur, for instance, in the understanding of different concepts, it can be unfortunate and may affect the health care system negatively. Having a proper understanding of the terms such as quarantine is essential for the general public. The action will help in ensuring that they have the same understanding as to the healthcare professionals and thus put in place measures as advised. Members of the public need to have a proper understanding of words and concepts more so in sensitive sectors such as healthcare. They need to read on the same page as healthcare providers in the understanding of specific terms. The action will play an essential role in the promotion of care and respond to healthcare crisis such as Covid-19, where quarantine, as an essential term, is applied.

References

Brooks, S. K., Webster, R. K., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N., & Rubin, G. J. (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: a rapid review of the evidence. The Lancet.

Du, Z., Wang, L., Cauchemez, S., Xu, X., Wang, X., Cowling, B. J., & Meyers, L. A. (2020). Risk of 2019 new coronavirus importations throughout China before the Wuhan quarantine. medRxiv.

Klement, E. (2018). Animal Movement Control and Quarantine. In Lumpy Skin Disease (pp. 97-98). Springer, Cham.

Nussbaumer-Streit, B., Chapman, A., Dobrescu, A. I., Mayr, V., Persad, E., Klerings, I., & Gartlehner, G. (2020). The Effectiveness of Quarantine to Control the Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Rapid Review. Available at SSRN 3550010.

Weber, A. (2019). A Forgotten Quarantine Landscape; The Staten Island Marine Hospital Quarantine 1799-1858. Material Culture, 51(2).