Chemical contaminants and other forms of indoor pollution have recently raised serious concern among occupational and environmental health workers, architects and engineers, and the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Microbial pollutants in the home pose major health risks to adults, children, and particularly the immuno-suppressed, while "sick building syndrome" is a reality for many office workers. This timely book presents an interdisciplinary exploration of these problems by examining the effects of modern, energy-efficient architecture on levels of microbial contamination in air and water supplies. With the common goal of constructing a microbiologically safe environment, the contributors represent the disciplines upon whose combined efforts a solution depends: systems engineering, medicine, microbiology, environmental hygiene, and architecture. Among the topics considered are methods of contamination control in heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems; the microbiologist's role --and the techniques used-- in evaluating the hygienic environment; and assessment of water systems used in health care facilities. Proposing methods for the elimination of the health problems discussed, the contributors stress the need for assessment of architectural design and subsequent preventive maintenance of buildings and their intricate heating and ventilating systems; and they show how poor building design and location affects it occupants. Architectural Design and Indoor Microbial Pollution provides public health professionals, microbiologists, and architects with an authoritative resource for assuring our comfort and safety in thehospitals, homes, and workplaces we inhabit.

In October 2010, nine months after the massive earthquake that devastated Haiti, a second disaster began to unfold-soon to become the world's largest cholera epidemic in modern times. In a country that had never before reported cholera, the epidemic mysteriously and simultaneously appeared in river communities of central Haiti, eventually triggering nearly 800,000 cases and 9,000 deaths. What had caused the first cases of cholera in Haiti in recorded history? Who or what was the deadly agent of origin? Why did it explode in the agricultural-rich delta of the Artibonite River? When answers were few, rumors spread, causing social and political consequences of their own. Wanting insight, the Haitian government and French embassy requested epidemiological assistance from France. A few weeks into the epidemic, physician and infectious disease specialist Renaud Piarroux arrived in Haiti.In Deadly River, Ralph R. Frerichs tells the story of the epidemic-of a French disease detective determined to trace its origins so that he could help contain the spread and possibly eliminate the disease-and the political intrigue that has made that effort so difficult. The story involves political maneuvering by powerful organizations such as the United Nations and its peacekeeping troops in Haiti, as well as by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Frerichs explores a quest for scientific truth and dissects a scientific disagreement involving world-renowned cholera experts who find themselves embroiled in intellectual and political turmoil in a poverty-stricken country.Frerichs's narrative highlights how the world's wealthy nations, nongovernmental agencies, and international institutions respond when their interests clash with the needs of the world's most vulnerable people. The story poses big social questions and offers insights not only on how to eliminate cholera in Haiti but also how nations, NGOs, and international organizations such as the UN and CDC deal with catastrophic infectious disease epidemics.