Main content
Faculty and Scholarship
Ebola and the law: a discussion of public health authority and its practical limits
Polly J. Price, Professor of Law |
The Emory medical team maintained its extensive safety procedures throughout the treatment process and is confident that the discharge of these patients poses no public health threat.
Abstract
This paper provides a brief overview of the various laws and regulatory authority relevant to the control of the Ebola virus in the United States, beginning with the first U.S. Ebola patients treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, as a background for broader discussion. Public health law is a general term for the broad array of laws and regulations that apply to control measures for any infectious disease outbreak. The Ebola virus provides an opportunity to survey the many fields of law responsive to the threat of pandemic disease, including the use of emergency health powers and quarantine authority in the United States.
Tags