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Bush Authorizes Use of Quarantine Powers in Cases of Bird Flu
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: April 2, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/02/politics/02birdflu.html?  (must register to view original article)


WASHINGTON, April 1 (AP) - President Bush signed an executive order on Friday authorizing the government to impose a quarantine to deal with any outbreak of a particularly lethal variation of influenza now found in Southeast Asia.

The order is intended to deal with a type of influenza commonly referred to as bird flu. Since January 2004, an estimated 69 people, primarily in Vietnam, have contracted the disease. But Dr. Keiji Fukuda, a flu expert at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, has said he suspects there are more cases.

The fatality rate among those reported to have contracted the disease is about 70 percent.

Health officials around the world are trying to monitor the virus because some flu pandemics are thought to have begun with birds.

Mr. Bush's order added pandemic influenza to the government's list of communicable diseases for which a quarantine is authorized. It gives the government authority to detain or isolate a passenger arriving in the United States to prevent an infection from spreading.

The authority would be used only if the passenger posed a threat to public health and refused to cooperate with a voluntary request, the Department of Health and Human Services said.

The quarantine list was amended in 2003 to include SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which killed nearly 800 people in 2003. Other diseases on the list are cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever and viral hemorrhagic fevers.

Quarantine and isolation were last used during the SARS outbreak in 2003. The last large-scale quarantine was during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19, though there have been lesser quarantines - for instance, travelers coming off airliners or cruise ships who have been exposed to curable diseases.

Jennifer Morcone, a spokeswoman for the health centers, said Mr. Bush's executive order was intended to prepare for all options.

The Public Health Service, Ms. Morcone said, would typically recommend voluntary home quarantine when possible. In general, the government defers to state and local authorities in their use of quarantine powers and would work with them in case of an outbreak, she said.