Deadly River

All public health students should read this book for two reasons: first, for the in-depth story of the scientific investigation of the source of the epidemic; and second, for the story of the political resistance and barriers, both powerful and subtle,that Piarroux encountered.... The description of Piarroux's investigation is fascinating. -- Laura Price * International Quarterly of Community Health Education * The CDC discouraged journalists from asking about the epidemic's origin, telling them that pinpointing the source was 'not productive, not central, and would likely never happen. Its epidemiologists did provide a key detail early on, when they identified the strain in Haiti as having a recent South Asian originmeaning it could have come from Nepal and not from South America, Africa, or anywhere else cholera was circulating at the time. The CDC refused to take environmental samples from around the [UN Peacekeepers] base or test the soldiers during the small window when doing either would have been worthwhile. All of this detailed in a damning new book by Ralph R. Frerichs called Deadly River.. -- Jonathan M. Katz * Slate * Frerichs, a retired epidemiologist and professor emeritus of epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, has written a damning account of the political and health professional response to the cholera epidemic that broke out in Haiti in October 2010... He does so from an epidemiologists perspective and with a clear focus on the Haiti case. Yet, his account is written for and accessible to a wider readership and also highly relevant for students of global (health) politics. -- Tine Hanrieder, Dr rer pol, University of Bremen * Cambridge Review of International Affairs * Ralph Frerichss Deadly River is, in no small part, an object lesson on the manner in which maps make sense of chaos in the midst of complex world events.... Frerichss focus, and indeed his passion, lies with the microbial world and its periodic attacks on humankind. * Cartographic Perspectives * Ralph R. Frerichs' compelling Deadly River tells the story of Haiti's 2010 cholera epidemic, the worst in recent history. The book is a detective story that documents how epidemiologists and others sought to quantify, decode, and combat cholera, and provides a firsthand look at the politics of medical humanitarianism. * PoLAR *

Ralph R. Frerichs is Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology at UCLA.

Preface Introduction 1. Upheaval 2. Vibrio Cholerae 3. Rumors 4. Stealth 5. Hypotheses 6. Maps 7. Altered Reality 8. Journalists 9. Secrecy 10. Obfuscation 11. Speculation 12. Pandemics and South Asia 13. Report 14. Vodou and Cholera 15. Inquiry 16. Politics before Science 17. Nepal 18. Concealed in the Field 19. Quarantine and Isolation 20. The Wall Cracks 21. Answers 22. Sanitation, Water, and Vaccination 23. Struggles and Elimination 24. Rapprochement Epilogue