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Hot, Dry Winds Help Spread Deadly Valley Fever Infections

August 9, 2013
In the Mojave Desert, extreme heat and wind, made worse by more intense weather conditions in recent years, has helped the spread of a resilient fungus that causes a deadly infection known as valley fever. Ray Suarez reports on the role of dust in the dramatic rise of valley fever.  ...

Valley Fever Strikes Hard in California Towns

July 31, 2013
Often considered a “silent epidemic,” valley fever officially infected 22,000 Americans in 2011 — most of them in California and Arizona — but some think the numbers are much higher. It’s an infection that can wreak havoc on the lungs, heart, bones and in some cases...

Condemned to valley fever

July 17, 2013
Valley fever, officially known as coccidioidomycosis, is caused by a fungus that lives in the soil in the southwestern United States. Though anyone can get valley fever, it's most commonly suffered by older adults, especially those over 60; African Americans; Asians; women in their third...

Valley Fever: An Incurable Illness in the Dust

July 16, 2013
Cases of an incurable illness called valley fever are multiplying at a mystifying rate in the American south-west. Six states are affected, and Mexico too, but few places have been hit as hard as one remote city. Even in sweltering heat, the wind brings no respite to Avenal. The gusts are warm,...

Cocci Can Kill – No Cure For Frightening Fungal Infection

July 6, 2013
A mysterious and dangerous lung infection with no known cure is quietly infecting thousands of men, women and children in America. The quiet killer destroys brain cells, causes strokes, seizures, painful stomach ulcers and horrific skin lesions. Doctors have no idea how wide spread the disease is:...

Valley Fever Outbreaks Lead California to Move Inmates

July 5, 2013
Tiny spores are causing major headaches for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation after a judge ordered the department to move thousands of high-risk inmates from two prisons that have been plagued by valley fever outbreaks in recent years. On [July 2, 2013] officials at the...

A Disease Without a Cure Spreads Quietly in the West

July 4, 2013
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — In 36 years with the Los Angeles police, Sgt. Irwin Klorman faced many dangerous situations, including one routine call that ended with Uzi fire and a bullet-riddled body sprawled on the living room floor. But his most life-threatening encounter has been with...

Inmates to be moved from two prisons because of valley fever threat

July 3, 2013
California corrections officials announced Tuesday they will comply with a federal judge's order to move inmates at risk of contracting valley fever out of two San Joaquin Valley prisons. Just how this is to be done remains unclear. Jeffrey Callison, spokesman for the Department of...

Valley Fever: 10 Things CDC Says You Should Know

June 26, 2013
Valley fever is on the rise in the southwestern United States, including Arizona’s Sonoran Desert. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Are W. It was a Thursday morning in March that Al Rountree called his boss to say he was too exhausted to make it to work. Thinking rest would help, Rountree went...

Federal Judge: Move Inmates at Risk of Valley Fever

June 24, 2013
All inmates at risk of developing a serious form of valley fever had to be removed from two central California state prisons in 2013, upholding a directive from the federal official in charge of prison health care. The ruling came over the objections of the state Department of Corrections and...

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