Isolation (Health Care)

An infection control measure used in health care facilities to keep patients already known to have a contagious viral or bacterial illness separated from other patients, health care workers and visitors, preventing the disease from spreading further. Isolation typically combines personal protective equipment, such as gowns, masks and gloves, with engineering controls such as positive or negative pressure rooms, laminar air flow equipment, and other mechanical or structural barriers, to contain the pathogen. It is a distinct practice from quarantine, which compulsorily separates and restricts the movement of people who may have been exposed to an infectious microorganism but are not yet known to be sick, and from biocontainment more broadly. When applied at the scale of a geographic area rather than an individual patient, the equivalent practice is called a cordon sanitaire, and when the goal is instead to protect an especially vulnerable patient from contamination by others, the practice is called reverse or protective isolation.