Sign Up And Receive Our Latest Updates!
.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
Was MIQ new?
Throughout time, society has managed infectious disease by isolating infected people from the uninfected. New Zealand’s managed isolation and quarantine system – or MIQ – was a modern take on an old strategy.
In the beginning | Isolating people suspected of carrying an infectious disease is recorded in ancient Greek literature and in the Bible. The word ‘quarantine’ probably comes from the Italian word for ‘forty’ which is ‘quaranta’. Venice was a major trading port for Medieval Europe and in 1398 established an official quarantine system of forty days during an epidemic of bubonic plague.
1400s | Medieval towns and villages tried to defend themselves against epidemics by isolating recognisably sick people, quarantining potentially infectious individuals, and forbidding entry of goods and people from infected places.
1500s and 1600s | Ships sailing to and from Asia and the Americas carried diseases with them. They had to produce a ‘clean bill’ from a previous port to use at the next to bypass quarantine. Local quarantine was also applied. In Venice, health officers visited private houses during epidemics to identify infected individuals and isolate them in ‘pest houses’ outside urban centres.
1700s | The plague, cholera, yellow fever, and smallpox were common and terrible transmissible diseases requiring quarantine. The Quarantine Act, passed in England in 1710, imposed the death sentence on those not following the compulsory 40-day quarantine for people and goods suspected or known to have been in contact with the plague.
1900s | The 1918-19 Spanish Flu was one of the worst pandemics in recorded history. It had a massive impact on the world with up to 50 million deaths. In 1920 the New Zealand government legislated to enforce special measures during outbreaks of infectious diseases. Medical officers were granted the power to turn buildings into centres for quarantine and healthcare, and to restrict people’s movement and gatherings. In 1918, not quarantining ships with flu-infected passengers or restricting travel, was responsible for the uncontrolled spread of Spanish Flu within New Zealand, and on to the Pacific – in particular Samoa, which had one of the highest death rates in the world.
In Aotearoa New Zealand – isolation islands
From Dunedin to Auckland, islands close to major ports were used to isolate passengers and livestock. In Otago, Quarantine Island was established solely for the purposes of isolating new immigrants. Over 9,000 people isolated on Quarantine Island between 1863 and its closure in 1924. For many new immigrants, this was their first experience of New Zealand.
Smallpox, measles, diptheria and scarlet fever were among the infectious diseases that required isolation on Quarantine Island. In 1874, the SS Atrato arrived in Otago from England with measles, croup and diptheria on board. Thirty two infants had died during the passage and another six perished on Quarantine Island. The island’s cemetery includes the graves of over 70 people, the last who perished from smallpox in 1916.
