Fever hospital

A fever hospital or isolation hospital is a hospital for infectious diseases such as Scarlet fever, Tuberculosis, Lassa fever and Smallpox. Their purpose is to treat affected people while isolating them from the general population. Early examples included the Liverpool Fever Hospital (1801) and the London Fever Hospital (1802).^[1]: 13 Other examples occurred elsewhere in the British Isles and India.

The hospitals became common in England when laws were passed at the end of the 19th century, requiring notification of infectious diseases so that public health officers could ensure that the patients were isolated. During the 20th century, immunisation and antibiotics reduced the impact of these diseases.^[2] After the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, the hospitals were wound down so that, by 1968, there were few left.^[1]: 27

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic a number of temporary isolation wards within existing hospitals were established as well as several temporary hospitals,^[3] such as the nightingale hospitals in England which were little used in many countries with the notable exception of China.^[4]

It has been suggested that creating modern isolation hospitals might be an effective way of managing highly infectious diseases as was shown in China during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[4] however the lack of staff to operate these facilities, the large costs for no ongoing direct patient benefit and the inability to use other hospital facilities to provide care for patients have been cited as the key reasons why fever hospitals are not appropriate in modern healthcare.^[5]