The good news is that the patient I know recovered fully after surgery. The bad news is that the patient had to have major surgery. Moreover, we are unsure to this day what the actual diagnosis was. The surgery was curative, as the patient's complaints and disabilities all went away after it was over, but the lung infection was never definitively diagnosed. (Another infectious agent was cultured after a different biopsy.) Slow-growing lung infections are very hard to diagnose. Fortunately, most people have a lot of spare lung tissue, so even removal of a whole lobe on one lung does not impair future aerobic exercise.
Developing better diagnostic procedures for this illness will not be easy at all, but seems well worth doing. Antifungal drugs are very hard to develop, because fungi are very biologically similar to animals, and thus a drug that works on fungi has a high probability of being toxic to human patients if taken internally.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/valley-fever/DS00695/DSECTI...
The rates do usually go up after earthquakes and storms that can lift up large amounts of dust up in the air.
In most people the infection resolves itself (much like TB in healthy people). Some people might get pneumonia and rarely do healthy people get meningitis. The disease is severe in immune-comprised but any disease can be severe in that case (eg: simple thrush - candida albicans infection)
simple anti-fungals eg: fluconazole is effective is most cases
The key is a MERV 13+ filter (MERV Rating System [0]), because it's 90% effective for collecting particles 1-10 microns. TTBOMK, this is the size of most spores and the arthroconidia that cause this coccidioidomycosis [1].
Take a a 20" box fan (like this Lasko one [2], or available at the hardware store) and these 20x20x4 MERV 13 filters [3], $48, then either tape or bungee cord the filters to the back of the fan. Run it on an elevated surface so that it's not wasting the filter on cleaning up particles that have fallen from the air and can be swept and mopped up. Assemble 1 unit per room.
This works really well. If you're looking for other methods to improve your air quality, search for a UV A/C attachment (e.g. Calutech Blue-Ray), diffused oils (e.g. "Thieve's Oil" in a cold-air diffuser), and ventilation practices. For a wide rang of cases, these nasal screens [4] offer a great solution.
[0] http://www.ontimeairfilters.com/air-filter-merv-rating [1] http://ci.vbi.vt.edu/pathinfo/pathogens/Coccidioides.html [2] http://www.amazon.com/Lasko-3723-20-Inch-Premium-3-SPEED/dp/... [3] http://www.ushomefilter.com/products/air-filters/SC80-20X20X... [4] http://www.filteryourlife.com/
(A) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Ana_winds#Health%20effect...
(B) http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/acd/diseases/Cocci.pdf - Check the comments section
Also H7N9 (a new bird flu), although it's a bit of a lightweight having killed a mere 20% of sufferers. It may not spread human to human, although we don't know that, and this one hasn't yet reached "the West".
Update: It was probably ProMED-mail[1]. The WHO also posts disease a outbreak news[2].
I was surprised to find that there are currently 35 strains of bird flu listed! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avian_influenza_virus#Contract...
It's horrible, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I'd say be careful when you visit AZ or CA, but there's not really anything you can do except avoid the dusty areas entirely.
No, but there is plenty of evidence that fungi develop resistance to anti-fungal drugs. If I really liked zest I might keep eating it, but since I actually don't like it in the first place I don't find that I lose anything by leaving it out of recipes and cocktails.
I certainly wouldn't say that it's definitely harmful, but when you're eating all these fungicides that have never been tested for longterm safety on humans then that's a risk one should be at least cognizant of.
Lethal fungal infections (such as Aspergillous and Mucormycosis - flesh eating fungus) are common in immune-comprimised individuals (Diabetics, HIV+ , Organ Transplant Recipients, etc) and very un-common in healthy individuals.
I mean some of them are curable, but anti-fungals are extremely toxic since human cells and fungi cells are very similar. And unlike with bacteria you can't just use antibiotics, since antibiotics mostly come from fungi to begin with. Also, you're not going to be young and healthy forever. At some point you are going to reach an age where you are highly vulnerable to fungal infections, unless you've already died from something else.
I zest the peels often and enjoy a gin and tonic with lime, would buying organic or from a specific producer help avoid it? The cost should be minimal for these items.
It's possible to buy organic unwaxed lemons, so people who worry about what's put on lemons and sealed in with wax can still enjoy zest.
For this post let's assume that all lemons are sprayed with pesticides and fungicides, and then they're waxed. And that the wax is removed by alcohol, allowing the pesticide and fungicide to come off into the drink.
A slice of lemon in a gin and tonic is going to give you a tiny dose. I'd be interested to see if there's any evidence that the pesticides and fungicides are doing any harm. (Especially in comparison to the alcohol.)
OTOH - doesn't every place have its own local diseases and parasites???
Exactly. This whole article feels like the sort of ego piece you only get out of places like LA or NYC. Every place on earth has diseases and other medical problems caused by local environmental factors. To give it that a name like "valley fever" is to trivialize the fact that the exact same phenomenon occurs everywhere else in the world too.
You're right. I live in the mid-Atlantic region of the country. Two months ago, we went hiking in the woods and my wife and I forgot to check our three kids for ticks until the next day. My 4 year old son had two ticks on him. A week later, bulls-eye rash about 5 inches in diameter appeared on his back around one of the tick bites.
Three weeks of antibiotics later, he was fine but there are a lot of people that get Lyme's Disease without even knowing that they had a tick bite, or the rash that appears in the majority (but not all) is in their hairline so they don't see it. Untreated, it can have a lot of the same effects the article attributes to this fungal infection.
Good thing you son had very TYPICAL presentation and history - H/o Hike in the woods , followed by rash with central clearing (bull's eye).
Lyme's disease is Endemic in the NE USA and some part of central US as well.
The article is a little sensationalist like I mentioned in another comment. Many parts of US (and the world) have their own set of Endemic Diseases to the Geo-location.
ps: It's untreated Borrellia infection that leas to lyme's disease.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melioidosis
Luckily, it's treatable with very high doses of antibiotics. It mostly kills the already infirm or elderly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naegleria_fowleri
Personally, I prefer springs and oceans. So not too worried about that. Lakes around here are murky and full of gators any way.
He had a fever and complained of pain in his arms for a week before going to see a doctor, but by then there was little they code do as the bacteria had spread to his heart.
Arizona was on the top of our list for our next home. Not anymore.
Somewhat related I've read that people who visit other countries for weeks at a time can also get all kinds of illnesses their immune system isn't familiar with, like Americans visiting Japan for a few weeks can catch all kinds of stomach viruses.
A healthy immune system typically doesn't have an issue with this.
Out where the ranches are, everything is dusty. Much more so than you see to the west in the Salinas valley or where I live (Paso/San Luis/Santa Maria). They built several prisons there years ago. It's pretty much the only lights you can see at night.
