What it means
ایزولاسیون بیمارستان (izolâsion-e bimârestân) refers to a hospital isolation unit or quarantine ward, a designated area where patients with infectious or highly contagious conditions are kept separate from the general patient population. Izolâsion is borrowed from French isolation (and parallel English borrowing), while bimârestân is a pure Persian compound meaning hospital, literally the place of the sick. In formal medical and public health writing you will also see بخش قرنطینه (bakhsh-e qarantineh), where qarantineh is itself a French loanword from Italian quarantina.
How to use it
- بیمار به ایزولاسیون بیمارستان منتقل شد. (bimâr be izolâsion-e bimârestân montaqel shod.) “The patient was transferred to the hospital isolation ward.”
- ایزولاسیون بیمارستان پر از بیماران کرونا بود. (izolâsion-e bimârestân por az bimârân-e koronâ bud.) “The hospital isolation ward was full of COVID patients.”
- ملاقات تو ایزولاسیون بیمارستان ممنوعه. (molâqât tu izolâsion-e bimârestân mamnu’e.) “Visits to the hospital isolation ward are not allowed.”
- پرستارا باید ماسک بزنن وقتی وارد ایزولاسیون میشن. (parastârâ bâyad mâsk bezanan vaghti vâred-e izolâsion mishan.) “Nurses must wear masks when entering the isolation unit.”
Cultural note
The term gained wide public recognition in Iran during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2022, when isolation wards became a central feature of news reporting and hospital communications. Before that, izolâsion was largely confined to medical professional speech and technical documents. Iran’s Ministry of Health issued specific protocols governing staffing ratios and protective equipment inside these units during that period. The word is sometimes written without the ezâfeh as a standalone noun: بخش ایزولاسیون (bakhsh-e izolâsion), meaning the isolation section.