Space Opera Fans discussion

Ships visiting other planets would have a risk of being contaminated in some fashion. Mold spores, small plant seeds of some highly invasive species, as well as diseases. How do interstellar organizations cope with this?

One of the books in the April series by Mackey Chandler (likely And What Goes Around) deals with preventing disease from spreading to the station. In Ride the Rising Tide by Peter Grant mold spores of a toxic plant were accidentally taken from its home planet and infected the air system of a lifeboat, which then spread to the air system of the ship it was delivered to, etc.

Do you know of any good books that deal with this? Most of the ones I’ve read don’t, and it bothers me when something like this is left out of the world building.

I can't think of anything specifically, but I'm pretty sure one of the Sector General novels by James White would have such a story.

I’m positive that at least one of the Sector General stories has a quarantine, and there are some books I read back in the 70s that did. Rolling Stones by Heinlein, and I vaguely recall one of Andre Norton’s books with a title something like Plague Ship.

Yeah, it's a common trope.

There'll be a fair few Star Trek novels that cover the subject.

Just going by memory it seems to have been a lot more common 40 years ago than in the last decade.

Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer series had the planet Ballybran in a type of quarantine because a spore would infect humans entering the atmosphere. Anyone infected would either become a crystal singer, become disabled in some way, or die.

Murray Leinster wrote about this, especially in his Med Service series.
There is even one titled Quarantine World
I'm not seeing this as a currently popular trope though there is occasional mention of decontamination. Like Leinster's stories, most of the ones I remember where this is a major plot point are from decades ago.

I wrote one (won't name it to avoid being self promo-y on the wrong thread) set on an interstellar cruise liner and in the process I researched Legionnaire's Disease, brain eating amoebas, norovirus and more...I had fun figuring out the root cause of the epidemic on my ship. The issue of decontamination didn't figure prominently in the plot (although I once interviewed the head of Planetary Protection at NASA/JPL for the old day job which was fascinating) but I truly enjoyed writing a 'medical mystery' in space. I was always fascinated by the real life medical detectives who track down the root causes of epidemics. And Norton's Plague Ship has always stayed with me over the years since I read it. Many good books referenced above in this thread!

Revelation Space our BOTM for December includes virus transfer and quarantine in it. But then, maybe it includes most things in it!

I'm working on the issue of quarantine of seeds in my new book. A bit of a biodiversity problem for the race that were rescued in the previous book! This is what comes of watching reruns of Border Security on tv in the mornings (while dealing with my companion animals).