title: Quarantine, isolation, and cohorting: from cholera to Klebsiella.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Isolation is defined as the separation of persons with communicable diseases from those who are healthy. This public health practice, along with quarantine, is used to limit the transmission of infectious diseases and provides the foundation of current-day cohorting.
  
  
  METHODS
  Review of the pertinent English-language literature.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mass isolation developed during the medieval Black Death outbreaks in order to protect ports from the transmission of epidemics. In the mid-1800s, infectious disease hospitals were opened. It now is clear that isolation and cohorting of patients and staff interrupts the transmission of disease. Over the next century, with the discovery of penicillin and vaccines against many infectious agents, the contagious disease hospitals began to close. Today, we find smaller outbreaks of microorganisms that have acquired substantial resistance to antimicrobial agents. In the resource-limited hospital, a dedicated area or region of a unit may suffice to separate affected from unaffected patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Quarantine, or cohorting when patients are infected with the same pathogen, interrupts the spread of infections, just as the contagious disease hospitals did during the epidemics of the 18th and 19th centuries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. LHR2M@virginia.edu
authors.forename: Laura H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Rosenberger
authors.forename: Lin M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Riccio
authors.forename: Kristin Turza
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: Amani D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Politano
authors.forename: Robert G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Sawyer
mesh_terms: D058872:Epidemics / Q000517:prevention & control*; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D010356:Patient Isolation / Q000266:history / Q000379:methods*; D011790:Quarantine / Q000266:history / Q000379:methods*