Quarantines and Travel Bans: Could They Work to Thwart Ebola?
What rules are in place to prevent pandemics?

10-16-2014 | David Biello

Thomas Eric Duncan’s family has been imprisoned in a borrowed home for a few weeks now, purportedly under police guard. This quarantine is an attempt to keep any Ebola virus from spreading further after their loved one died of the disease on October 8.

That quarantine has not been applied to hospital workers who came into contact with Duncan on either his first visit to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital—when he was turned away—or his second visit two days later. To date, two of the medical workers who helped care for Duncan have now contracted Ebola, and one of them flew to Cleveland and back for the Columbus Day weekend before becoming symptomatic.

Just as air travel brought the Ebola virus to Dallas from Liberia, where the pandemic is spreading out of control, air travel could spread the virus throughout the U.S. and the world by travelers who don’t know they are infected. Travel restrictions, isolation of the infected and quarantine of those known to have been in contact with the infected are a few of the measures that have been suggested for stopping that spread.