CDC wants to expand quarantine rules for vessel personnel

CDC wants to expand quarantine rules for vessel personnel    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has proposed updating existing regulations to allow the CDC to act faster in controlling an outbreak of disease from sick crewmembers on vessels arriving in the United States.
   The changes would mean expanded reporting of ill crew personnel prior to a ship's arrival, as well requirements that vessels submit crew lists to the CDC electronically if requested. The CDC has also proposed similar requirements for airline crews and passengers.
   The CDC also wants to expand quarantine restrictions, but said that it would use its broader authority only in cases where crew personnel posed a threat to public health and refused to cooperate with a voluntary request to go into quarantine.
   Under law, the CDC is empowered to prevent, by means of isolation and quarantine, persons from entering the country who are believed to have one of nine specific communicable diseases.
   The diseases are pandemic influenza, cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, viral hemorrhagic fevers, and SARS.
   For the proposed regulation, see 70 Fed. Reg. 71891.