TY - JOUR AU - Hsieh, Ying-Hen AU - King, Chwan-Chuan AU - Chen, Cathy W. S. AU - Ho, Mei-Shang AU - Lee, Jen-Yu AU - Liu, Feng-Chi AU - Wu, Yi-Chun T1 - Quarantine for SARS, Taiwan T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2005 VL - 11 IS - 2 SP - 278 SN - 1080-6059 AB - During the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Taiwan, >150,000 persons were quarantined, 24 of whom were later found to have laboratory-confirmed SARS-coronavirus (SARS-CoV) infection. Since no evidence exists that SARS-CoV is infective before the onset of symptoms and the quarantined persons were exposed but not symptomatic, we questioned the quarantine’s effectiveness. Using the SARS Taiwan quarantine data, we found that the onset-to-diagnosis time of previously quarantined confirmed case-patients was significantly shortened compared to that for those who had not been quarantined. Thus, quarantine for SARS in Taiwan screened potential infective persons for swift diagnosis and hospitalization after onset, thereby indirectly reducing infections. Full-scale quarantine measures implemented on April 28 led to a significant improvement in onset-to-diagnosis time of all SARS patients, regardless of previous quarantine status. We discuss the temporal effects of quarantine measures and other interventions on detection and isolation as well as the potential usefulness of quarantine in faster identification of persons with SARS and in improving isolation measures. KW - SARS KW - emerging infectious disease KW - quarantine KW - intervention KW - Taiwan KW - research DO - 10.3201/eid1102.040190 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/11/2/04-0190_article ER - End of Reference