In public health practice, some circumstances may lead to a clash between individual patients’ rights and measures aimed at safeguarding the security of populations. The dilemma is classically illustrated by a number of severe communicable diseases with high potential of transmission, such as SARS, viral haemorrhagic fevers (VHF) and pneumonic plague. National public health regulations are expected to provide legal and technical guidance over intrusive or restrictive measures applied to communicable diseases control. These can range from public health observation to quarantine (for suspect persons), and from isolation to detention (for overt cases). There is however no universal template for such regulations, as applied within sovereign states.
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