01918nas a2200313   4500000000100000008004100001260001300042653001600055653002200071653001100093653003500104653002600139653002600165653002600191653002200217653002500239653001100264653001000275653001900285653001200304653002200316653001100338100001600349245006700365300001100432490000700443520114000450022001401590       2003                            d  c2003 Dec10aCatholicism10aDisease Outbreaks10aEurope10aHealth Services Administration10aHistory, 15th Century10aHistory, 16th Century10aHistory, 17th Century10aHistory, Medieval10aHospitals, Religious10aHumans10aItaly10aLeper Colonies10aleprosy10aPatient Isolation10aPlague1 aSabbatani S00a[Health service organization during the age of pestilence. 2].  a216-210 v113 a<p>The author presents the history of the places where patients with epidemic pathologies were isolated. Since the study of medicine began, such places have been known as asclepiei, xenodochi, hospices, lazarettos, sanitary cordons, and quarantine stations and they contributed to controlling epidemics in Europe. Important not only in the context in which they were created, these structures expressed the medical culture and point of view of that age. Although very far from discovering the cause of the pathology due to their lack of scientific knowledge, the medical class sometimes knew how to effectively organize the isolation of patients. The history of such structures interweaves with the long history of Christianity and with the emerging nations of Europe and the city-states of the Italian Renaissance. Previously, in classical Greece and Imperial Rome there had also been "homes for the sick" to isolate patients. Today the world is periodically hit by epidemics. In such moments the medical profession uses its research ability and organizational capabilities but also historical memory to reduce epidemic contagion.</p>  a1124-9390