Diagnosis

A flight attendant from the United Arabic Emirates writes he has been exposed in company accommodations for two years to indoor areas with evident microbial growth. The VCS is positive. He would like to be able to prove that the illness is making him ill.

Each of the five volumes of Frequently Asked Questions published to date has extensive discussion of diagnosis of a CIRS acquired following exposure to the interior environment of water-damaged buildings. What you will need to do is confirm that the substance you see is microbial growth and not soot or something else; you will need to record symptoms together with performance of a visual contrast sensitivity test. These tasks can be accomplished easily on this website. You will also need to have laboratory studies done (use the physician order sheet found on this website) that satisfy the lab abnormalities identified in 1829 mold patient compared to 500 controls. Please see the paper published in Health in 2013 also on the website.

Your last task to confirm this diagnosis is to have improvement with treatment. These criteria are based on the 2008 USGAO report and echoed by the 2010 Expert Treating Physicians and Consensus report.