Legal Issues in Quarantine and Isolation for Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases

Kim, Cheonsoo

The steps in both personal and property quarantine measures include diagnosis of infectious disease (detection of patients and others), its notification and reporting, the corresponding quarantine measures, and official compensation for the resulting loss. The fact that infectious disease control is a government activity must not be overlooked, and private medical personnel as well as medical institutions are subsidiary institutions assisting in related affairs. Furthermore, in order to effectively control the spread of infectious disease through prompt quarantine measures, an exceptional system of direct reporting to the final decision maker must be established, as well as an exceptional system of immediate reporting and decision-making for immediate decisions on compensation in cases where a high level of compensation is expected. Meanwhile, whether the regulations associated with the detection of patients diagnosed with the infectious disease are appropriate, and especially whether the management and procedure of notification and reporting as a process of the quarantine measures is appropriate, remains in question. Detailed regulations are still needed regarding the two patient quarantine methods, which include isolation in external facilities (medical institutions, quarantine centers, etc.) and self-isolation in the patient’s home.