ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

Communicable Diseases, Isolation, and QuarantineThe conclusion, which the two dissenting board membersdescribed as based on faulty analysis, resulted from findingsthat minority voters’ ballots were more likely to berejected than those of their white counterparts.Communicable Diseases,Isolation, and Quarantine❚ BRENDA W. LERNER/K. LEE LERNERResponsibilities and powers of the commission. The Floridastudy is an example of the commission fulfilling oneaspect of its mandate: investigation of allegations thatcitizens have been denied their right to vote either byfraudulent practices, or by reason of their race, color, sex,religion, age, disability, or national origin. The commissionalso studies and compiles information regardingdiscrimination or denial of equal protection in the administrationof justice, or because of race and the other characteristicsnamed previously. It submits reports and recommendationsto the White House and Congress, andissues public service announcements designed to discouragediscrimination or the denial of equal protectionunder the law.The commissioners, who serve six-year terms, meeton a monthly basis, except during August, and meetseveral other times each year to hold hearings, conferences,consultations, or briefings. In the process of producingdocuments, the commission can call witnessesand issue subpoenas within a state at which a hearing isheld, and within a 100-mile radius of the site of the hearing,whichever is larger. The commission maintains advisorycommittees at the state level, and refers the manycomplaints it receives to appropriate federal, state, or localagencies (including ones concerned with law enforcement),as well as private organizations.The results of commission studies usually see publication,and the commission produces a number of pamphletson a yearly basis. Among those that appeared in2002 were Briefing on Civil Rights Issues Facing Muslimsand Arab Americans in Minnesota Post-September 11 (thecommission also produced a similar study on Wisconsin);Voting Rights in Florida 2002: Briefing Summary; andHaitian Asylum Seekers and U.S. Immigration Policy.❚ FURTHER READING:ELECTRONIC:Civil Rights Commission Approves Report Assailing FloridaVote. Cable News Network. (January 29,2003).United States Commission on Civil Rights. (January 29, 2003).Isolation and quarantine remain potent tools in the modernpublic health arsenal. Both procedures seek to controlexposure to infected individuals or materials.Isolation and quarantine are not synonymous. Isolationprocedures are used with patients with a confirmedillness. Quarantine rules and procedures apply to individualswho are not currently ill—but who are known tohave been exposed to the illness (e.g., the person hasbeen in the company of a infected person or come incontact with infected materials).Isolation and quarantine both act to restricts movementand slow or stop the spread of disease within acommunity. Depending on the illness, patients placed inisolation may be cared for in hospitals, specialized healthcare facilities, or in less severe cases, at home. Isolation isa standard procedure for active tuberculosis patients. Inmost cases, isolation is voluntary; however, isolation canbe compelled by federal, state, and some local law.Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is thefirst emergent and easily transmissible disease to appearduring the twenty-first century. Patients with SARS developflu-like fever, headache, malaise, dry cough andother breathing difficulties. Many patients develop pneumoniaand in 5% to 10% of cases, the pneumonia andother complications are severe enough to cause respiratoryfailure and death. SARS is caused by a virus that istransmitted mainly from person to person by the aerosolizeddroplets of virus.SARS cases provided a test of recent reforms ininternational health regulations that were designed toincrease surveillance and reporting of infectious disease—and to enhance cooperation in preventing the internationalspread of disease. Although not an act of bioterrorism,because the very same epidemiologic principles and isolationprotocols might be used to both determine andinitially respond to an act of bioterrorism, intelligence andpublic heath officials closely monitored the political, scientific,and medical responses to the outbreak. In manyregards, the SARS outbreak provided a real and deadlytest of world public health responses, readiness, andresources.Common to both the responses of the 2003 SARSoutbreak and a potential deliberate biological attack usingpathogens—including smallpox or anthrax—is the needto rapidly develop accurate diagnostic tests, treatmentprotocols, and medically sound control measures.At the end of April, 2003, SARS had the potential tobecome a global pandemic. Scientists, public health authorities,and clinicians around the world struggled toboth treat and investigate the disease.248 Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security