Isolation (health care)

In hospitals or health care areas, isolation is one of the many measures that can be taken to stop the spread of certain diseases as it would lower the amount of people being infected by it. The most recent case are people being forced by law to stay at home as schools and jobs are closed due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. This is different than quarantine as this is for people who have not been infected.

What is it?
According to the CDC, isolation is the act of separating a sick individual with a contagious disease from healthy individuals without that contagious disease in order to protect the public from getting the contagious disease.

Why is it important?
Contagious diseases can spread to others through many forms. Four types of infectious disease transmission can happen: (1) contact transmission, which can be through direct physical contact (2) vehicular transmission, which involves contaminated objects, (3) airborne transmission, which involves spread of infectious particles through air, and (4) vector transmission, which is spread through insects or animals. Since diseases can spread through many forms of transmission it is important for people who are not infected to stay at home so that they won't get sick. For those who are sick then it is important for them to quarantine to make sure they don't spread the disease.

Related pages
 Quarantine
 Social distancing

References

Other websites
Chart showing recommendations for various forms of isolation

Category:Nursing