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National
Center For Infectious Diseases
Division of Global
Migration and Quarantine
(formerly
the Division of Quarantine)
DQ
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The practice of quarantine, as we know it, began during the fourteenth century in an effort to protect coastal cities from plague epidemics. Ships arriving in Venice from infected ports were required to sit at anchor for forty days before landing. This practice, called quarantine, was derived from the Latin word quaresma, meaning forty.
When the United States was first established, little was done to prevent the importation of infectious diseases. Protection against imported diseases was considered a local matter and handled by the colonies. While sporadic attempts were made to impose quarantine requirements, it was the continued yellow fever epidemics that led to the passage of Federal Quarantine Legislation by Congress in 1878. This legislation, while not conflicting with States' rights, paved the way for Federal involvement in quarantine activities. With the arrival of cholera from abroad in 1892, the law was reinterpreted to allow the Federal Government more authority in imposing quarantine requirements. In 1893, another act of Congress further clarified the Federal role in quarantine activities. Local quarantine stations were gradually turned over to the government as local authorities came to realize the benefits of Federal involvement. Additional facilities were built to provide better coverage, and quarantine was nationalized. By 1921, all quarantine stations were under Federal control. In 1944, with codification of the Public Health Service Act, the Federal Government's quarantine authority was clearly established for the first time.
Originally part of the Treasury Department, Quarantine and its parent organization, the Public Health Service, became part of the Federal Security Agency in 1939. In 1953, PHS and Quarantine joined the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW). Quarantine was then transferred, in 1967, to the National Communicable Disease Center, now known as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Health and Human Services, a successor to HEW. When the CDC assumed responsibility for Quarantine, it was a large organization with 55 quarantine stations and more than 500 staff members. Quarantine stations were located at every port, international airport, and major border crossing. In the 1970's, after studying the program and its relationship to transportation and disease prevention, CDC reduced the size of the quarantine program and changed its focus from routine inspection to program management and problem intervention. The new focus included an enhanced surveillance system to monitor the onset of epidemics abroad and a modernized inspection process to meet the changing needs of international traffic. The Public Health Service Act gave the U.S. Public Health Service responsibility for preventing the introduction, transmission, and spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the United States. Under its delegated authority, the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine is empowered to detain, medically examine, or conditionally release individuals and wildlife suspected of carrying a communicable disease. The list of quarantinable diseases is contained in an Executive Order of the President and includes cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, and viral hemorrhagic fevers, such as Marburg, Ebola and Congo-Crimean. At present, the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine is part of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The staff includes 39 employees in the field and 42 at DQ headquarters. Quarantine stations are located in Atlanta, New York, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Honolulu. Each station has responsibility for all ports in an assigned region of the United States. Quarantine operation involves the cooperation of numerous agencies, including:
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