Airborne Infectious Diseases links the microbiology of an airborne infectious agent with the physics behind its aerosol transmission. The book covers key factors in infectious disease biology including incubation periods, periods of shedding and infectiousness, host susceptibility and immunity, airborne survival, and infectious doses of potentially airborne-transmitted infectious agents, then integrates the microbiology with the physics of disease transmission, such as airflow dynamics and transport, human and potential environmental sources of aerosol generation, relative humidity and temperature effects on airflows and pathogen survival, and ventilation interventions for isolation or containment and infection control.
Airborne Infectious Diseases also addresses key questions faced by government agencies and public health institutions around the world: what type of mask should be worn by frontline healthcare workers? Should influenza patients be isolated in negative pressure isolation rooms? How can we limit the transmission of influenza in hospital wards, households, schools, shopping malls, public transport systems, and other places where people gather in high densities? Written by experts spanning the fields of microbiology, phyics and engineering, this book will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in creating successful infectious disease management strategies in a changing and increasingly interconnected world.
