How should the authorities treat people with infectious diseases who might put others at risk?
This tricky question is being considered by health officials in England. Their consultation about new laws on the control of disease and other hazards closes this week.
Experts agree that a new approach is needed – but some people are worried that the government’s proposals for change are too vague.
It is easy to think of tuberculosis (TB), for example, as a disease of the past.
TB is still with us. A drug-resistant form of the disease recently reared its head in the US, forcing officials to issue their first quarantine order in 44 years.
The infected man remains in hospital, ahead of lung surgery next month.