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“Protecting the health and informed consent rights of children since 1982.”

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Health officials dust off old laws to contain new diseases

06/18/03

By Daniel Yee, Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA — SARS is forcing health officials — meeting at a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conference on public health laws today — to take a new look at quarantine rules that may be necessary to contain the spread of diseases.

Canadian officials described many of the difficulties they faced during the SARS outbreak in Toronto, including the case of a man who could not attend his parents’ funeral because he was held in quarantine. Nurses placed under repeated quarantine could not hold their children. Those under home isolation remained separate and alone — one woman holed up in her garage to protect her family from the virus.

But the measures were necessary, health officials said, because the respiratory disease can spread quickly. Mourners became ill with the disease while trying to attend the funeral of another SARS patient. Exhausted health care workers infected their husbands, some of whom later died.

“It became a very human problem yet we had to deal with it in a humane and legal way that was difficult,” said Jane Speakman of Toronto’s legal services department.

The United States and Canada had not taken a major community action against a disease since the advent of polio vaccine in 1954.

“We no longer needed to close swimming pools ... and close summer camps,” said Gene Matthews, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention legal adviser. “We have had a 50-year period in this country where we have not had to use community-wide public health measures.”

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