Revised List of Quarantinable Communicable Diseases
Revises Federal Quarantine Rules for Severe Respiratory Diseases
What it does
Agencies must treat severe acute respiratory syndromes as quarantinable diseases under the amended executive order, excluding influenza.
Real-world impact
- Enables health agencies to use federal quarantine for severe respiratory syndromes.
- Specifically excludes ordinary influenza from this quarantinable disease category.
- Makes clear the change does not create new legal rights or alter agency authority.
Topics
Summary
This order updates the federal list of diseases that can be subject to quarantine by changing the definition used in an earlier executive order.
It adopts a new definition of "severe acute respiratory syndromes"—illnesses with fever and respiratory symptoms that spread between people and either risk causing a pandemic or cause serious illness or death; the definition explicitly excludes influenza.
The change follows a recommendation from the Secretary of Health and Human Services with input from the Acting Surgeon General and states it does not create new legal rights or alter other agencies' authorities.
Questions, answered
Ask questions about this executive order and its implications. Try:
- “What agencies are affected by this order?”
- “How does this order change existing policy?”
- “What are the practical implications of this order?”