Quarantine Island

Quarantine Island

Towards the middle of the 18th century, many epidemics, especially plague and cholera, were seen in Europe and Asia. At that time, in order to be protected from these diseases, entrance and exit to all cities were kept under strict control. Despite the fact that so many precautions are taken in cities, diseases are transported from other countries by ships and ship personnel used in maritime trade, causing major epidemics. European countries were also keeping the ships coming from foreign countries in the open sea for 40 days before entering the port in order to protect them from these epidemic diseases that reached them by ships. Later, those who were thought to have a suspicion of illness were allowed to return to their jobs after being kept under observation for about seven days by abandoning this practice. In order to implement this, buildings called quarantine were built separately from the hospital settlement, and those suspected of disease were isolated from the others and kept there for a suitable period of time. The word quarantine is literally translated from the word 'Quarantine', which means separate and protected place in Italian, and is used in the same sense. The quarantine buildings here were built by the French by the Ottomans. The work initiated by the coastal and border health teams when the buildings were prepared continued uninterruptedly until 1950. The quarantine system worked as follows. Passengers disembarked from the ship berthing to Quarantine Island and ship crew, if necessary, were first taken to the locker room. Here, they would first take off their clothes and put them in special nets. With the rotating cabinet system in the dressing area, the officer on the other side of the room would take these clothes and place them in cabinets that rotate 360 ​​degrees and contain hot air and start the disinfection process. Passengers wearing only loincloths and clogs were taken to private shower rooms, where they were showered with soap and special disinfectants. After the dressed passengers were examined by a doctor, the healthy ones continued on their way, and those who were sick were kept under control in special compartments to be treated. In the event of their death, they would try to be isolated by burials in slaked lime graves and as deep as possible. During the disinfection of the items, the clothes were sterilized with steam at 120 degrees, so they did not get wet and were allowed to be worn again by passengers. Passengers' clothes were divided into silk and normal during this sterilization. In order not to damage the silk ones, they were subjected to this process separately and specifically.