Quarantines have tried to keep out disease for thousands of years
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February 5, 2020
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)
Leslie S. Leighton, Georgia State University
(THE CONVERSATION) The recent global spread of a deadly coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China, has led world leaders to invoke an ancient tradition to control the spread of illness: quarantine.
The practice is first recorded in the Old Testament where several versesmandate isolation for those with leprosy. Ancient civilizations relied on isolating the sick, well before the actual microbial causes of disease were known. In times when tr...
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