Quality of impact factors of general medical journals

Abstract

Editor-The former Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) (now Health Protection Agency) states that there is no need for students returning from areas affected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) to be excluded or quarantined unless they are unwell. 1 However, the agency is aware that some schools are advising parents differently. 1 Unfortunately, some Chinese students are subjected to quarantine imposed by their schools, which becomes very disruptive to these students' schooling. One boarding school was reported to be excluding students returning from certain parts of the Far East after Easter. 2 After receiving inquires from anxious Chinese guardians about whether Chinese students should be quarantined, I searched the internet using the terms "SARS" and "school" on www.freeserve.com to identify policies about the syndrome in different schools. After visiting the first 100 websites in the United Kingdom, I identified the policies of 10 schools. The table shows the results.