CDC wants to create its own version of the police state Patriot Act to keep us from getting sick. Original Article CDC rule could allow traveler quarantine By Rick Weiss The Washington Post WASHINGTON The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday released a phone-book-thick proposed rule that would give the federal government new powers to track the comings and goings of individual travelers and expand the circumstances under which passengers exposed to a serious communicable disease could be isolated or quarantined. The proposed changes are the latest in a series of preparatory moves aimed at solidifying federal health officials' legal authority to act to slow the spread of emerging contagious diseases, such as pandemic flu. The new provisions call for greater scrutiny of passengers for signs of illness and greater efforts by airlines and others to obtain personal contact information from travelers. They also broaden the list of symptoms that would make people subject to quarantine. While the rules strengthen federal authority to isolate passengers suspected of being infected, they also spell out in unprecedented detail key legal rights, including appeals processes, for citizens. The agency will accept public comment for 60 days before issuing a final regulation. Officials said they were confident that most Americans would support the changes so the government could better protect them from a major outbreak, whether naturally occurring or from a bioterrorist attack. "We're not talking about quarantining anybody for a sniffle or a cough," Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's division of global migration and quarantine, said in a conference call with reporters. While more personal information will be asked of passengers, he said including phone numbers and e-mail addresses the goal is simply to be able to contact people if it becomes apparent they sat near an infected person while traveling. "There are some very rigorous standards of privacy with which this information will be treated," Cetron said. Many of the proposed changes are the result of lessons learned from the 2003 SARS outbreak, when federal and international health officials realized how hard it was to track down passengers who had shared flights or other transportation with an individual who later proved to be sick with the contagious disease. Flight manifests are sometimes destroyed within days, they found, and customs documents being on paper were not easily transmitted to health authorities and often illegible. The proposed regulation requires airlines operating out of major airports and international cruise operators to request detailed contact information from passengers; maintain that information, along with the passenger's seat location, electronically for at least 60 days; and transmit it to the CDC within 12 hours of a request. As currently proposed, passengers could refuse to give personal contact information and still travel. The agency would destroy the information after a year, by which time it would no longer be useful for tracing disease. The rule also demands that ship and plane captains report to the CDC any deaths or signs of significant illness on board, preferably before arriving at their destination. Existing requirements are less explicit. Current federal law allows the government to quarantine people "reasonably expected to be infected with or exposed to" any of nine diseases: cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, viral hemorrhagic fevers (including Ebola), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and pandemic flu. Under the new proposal, the criteria used to presume infection are broadened to include a fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher in conjunction with other symptoms. Copyright 2005 The Seattle Times Company