WASHINGTON - President Bush on Friday gave federal health officials authority to quarantine Americans sick with the highly contagious mystery illness. Officials said there were no immediate plans to use the emergency powers.
In an executive order signed Friday, Bush added severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, to the list of diseases for which health authorities have authority to hold Americans against their will.
It's the first time a new disease has been added to the list in two decades.
"If spread in the population," the order says, SARS "would have severe public health consequences."
Several diseases have long been on the list for which quarantine may be used: cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever and several viral hemorrhagic fevers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2003Apr4.html
From what I gather,
