A father brings his son in for a dental problem. The child has fever and a cough, and the father mentions he recently returned from travel abroad and the child began feeling ill afterward. What is the MOST appropriate immediate action?

Correct answer: A. Take both the father and the son to an isolated room

• A. Correct. Fever + cough + recent international travel is a respiratory-illness screening trigger. The correct step is source isolation: move BOTH the patient and the accompanying adult (also a potential contact/case) out of the common waiting area into a separate closed room, then defer elective care and refer for medical evaluation. Isolating only the child leaves an exposed adult in the shared space.
• B. Standard precautions alone do not address airborne/droplet respiratory transmission risk in a shared waiting room.
• C. Treating the father is inappropriate — he is a potential contact and possible source; elective care should be deferred for both.
• D. Masking helps, but leaving a symptomatic patient in the general waiting area still exposes other patients and staff. Physical separation comes first.