A History Of Quarantines, From Bubonic Plague To Typhoid Mary

China is building a quarantine center on the outskirts of the city of Wuhan, where a newly identified virus has infected many hundreds of residents.

The idea of putting a possibly sick person in quarantine goes back to the ancient texts. The book of Leviticus tells how to quarantine people with leprosy. Hippocrates covered the issue in a three-volume set on epidemics, though he came from a time in ancient Greece when disease was thought to spread from "miasmas," or foul-smelling gas that came out of the ground.

With this new quarantine effort in the news, we offer a look at quarantine use — and abuse — over the ages.

Bubonic plague in Venice (1370)

The so-called Black Death killed 20 million Europeans in the 14th century. Sofrom theItalian word for 40. As opinions about the disease changed, the isolation period shrank to — 30 days — but the original name stuck.