ABSTRACT - Nicholas D Kristof Op-Ed column says one lesson of SARS outbreak is that Americans need to compromise on civil liberties in order to confront public health risks more effectively in age of bioterrorism threat and global spread of disease; supports model legislation pushed by Bush administration after 9/11 that would permit states to respond to health crises with state of emergency in which they could impose quarantines, order vaccinations and take other tough measures; notes that only 22 states, not including New York, have passed this kind of law (M) Right after returning from covering the war in Congo five years ago, around the time of an Ebola outbreak there, I abruptly broke into the shakes and a high fever one night. I was living in Tokyo, so a Japanese friend helpfully called the health authorities and asked what to do with a foreigner who had just emerged from the central African jungle with a high fever.

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