We present a quantum error correction code which protects a qubit of information against general one qubit errors. To accomplish this, we encode the original state by distributing quantum information over five qubits, the minimal number required for this task. We describe a circuit which takes the initial state with four extra qubits in the state |0〉 to the encoded state. It can also be converted into a decoder by running it backward. The original state of the encoded qubit can then be restored by a simple unitary transformation.
Laflamme et al. (1996) studied this question.