Forced Quarantines On The Horizon

April 28, 2003

Doctors may get new legal powers in war against Sars
By Anthony Browne



SWEEPING new powers to control the spread of Sars that allow doctors to detain sufferers against their will may be introduced by the Government.
As 26 more people died of the disease on the weekend, bringing the worldwide total to 319, Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, said that the Government may declare Sars a “notifiable” disease. The move would give doctors the power to quarantine suspected sufferers and destroy clothing that they think may be infected. Sir Liam said: “In due course, in the longterm it might be helpful to make it notifiable.” However, he said that with only six cases so far in the UK, none of them fatal, vigilance was still the best policy.

Dr Liam Fox, the Shadow Health Secretary, accused the Government of dithering: “If making the disease notifiable would protect the British public, why isn’t it being done immediately?” The Department of Health justified the “wait-and-see” policy by saying: “In the longer term, it might be made notifiable, but we don’t want bureaucracy getting in the way of urgent reporting.”

In Ireland, Dr Darina O’Flanagan, the head of the National Disease Surveillance Centre, has defended a plan by doctors to escalate industrial action to establish a structured service to deal with diseases such as Sars. Doctors have been accused by the Government of being irresponsible for calling for action during the outbreak, but Dr Flaganan said continuing to operate the existing system was “unsafe”.


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