Quarantine facts for kids
Quarantine is where animals, people or an area of land are isolated to prevent the spread of disease or pests. Countries often stop animals and plants from being brought in from elsewhere, unless they are known not to carry a disease.
Background
The word "quarantine" comes from quarantena, the Venetian language meaning "forty days". This is because of the 40-day isolation of ships and people practiced as a measure of disease prevention related to the plague.
It is different from medical isolation, which is for people who have been infected with the disease.
The quarantining of people often raises questions of civil rights. Quarantine can have bad psychological effects on the quarantined. These include post-traumatic stress disorder, confusion and anger.
COVID-19
Self quarantine (or self-isolation) is a term that became popular during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, which spread to most countries in 2020. Citizens were either encouraged or forced by law to stay home to lower the spread of the disease. Some countries went into lockdowns as a form of quarantine.
Related pages
Images for kids
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The quarantine ship Rhin, at large in Sheerness. Source: National Maritime Museum of Greenwich, London
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Isolating a village in Romania whose inhabitants believe that doctors poison those suspected of cholera (1911)
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The quarantine hospital building (lazaretto) at the historic Columbia River Quarantine Station near Knappton, Washington
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Public Health Service Quarantine Station, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1957
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Quarantine of the convict ship Surry on the North Shore of Sydney Harbour in 1814, the first quarantine in Australia
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A road sign at an exit on Interstate 91 in Vermont, photographed in November 2020.
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Slovakia closed borders to non-residents because of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
See also
In Spanish: Cuarentena para niños
