Pioneering quarantine health station on İzmir island to become museum?

The quarantine station was in operation between 1865 and 1950, and was used as a way station by mariners and passengers to and from Ä°zmir in Ottoman times.

The world’s only protected quarantine station on an island, on Karantina in the western Turkish province of İzmir, is awaiting the attention of the Culture and Tourism Ministry to become a health museum A center on Karantina Island, facing Urla in the western district of İzmir, is the world’s only protected quarantine station on an island, and it is now waiting to be converted into a museum.

The quarantine station was built almost 150 years ago and was in operation between 1865 and 1950, and was generally used as a way station by French mariners and passengers to and from Ä°zmir in Ottoman times. It was one of the leading health centers of its time, where terminal diseases such as plague and typhoid were sought to be neutralized.

İzmir Health Director Bediha Türkyılmaz said contagious diseases were common in 1800s, and plague and typhoid were common in Europe. The Ottomans therefore built the quarantine station in Urla in 1865 for those who arrived in Anatolia by sea, with a boat allocated for contagious disease suspects, who were sterilized and taken under treatment without coming in contact with other people.

Türkyılmaz added that there were three more quarantine stations in the U.S. and Croatia, but none in the Muslim world, and the island center in Urla had also drawn the attention of the World Health Organization.

“This is one of the best places showing the importance of health and hygiene for Turks and Muslims. The Health Ministry has sent a letter to the Culture and Tourism Ministry to turn this place into a museum, but they have not yet replied. We know the result could be positive, and we agree that this place should become a health museum … Now...

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