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January 3, 2013
Valley fever among Arizonans continues to run high, according to the state Department of Health Services. There were more than 12,000 confirmed cases of Valley Fever in 2012. In the most recent year-to-date report available, that’s far above the five-year median for January through November...
December 8, 2012
BY YESENIA AMARO AND TRACY WOOD Reporting on Health Collaborative: Thousands of California and Arizona adults and children annually contract valley fever and find themselves battling the disease for months or years — missing work and school, spending weeks in the hospital — with...
September 20, 2012
With valley fever cases soaring in the southwest, people’s lives and finances are being upended. Misdiagnosis of the disease adds to the costs for doctor’s visits, hospitalizations and long-term treatment with drugs. At more than $100,000 for a typical hospital stay, valley fever, on...
September 10, 2012
Valley fever starts with the simple act of breathing. Fungal spores, lifted from the dry dirt by the wind, pass through your nostrils or down your throat, so tiny they don’t even trigger a cough. They lodge in your lungs. If you’re fortunate – and most people are – they go...
September 7, 2012
PHOENIX -- Among the unique aspects of life in the Valley of the Sun is the likelihood of contracting a disease you won't find almost anywhere else. Eighty percent of Arizona's reported cases of Valley Fever occur in Maricopa County, according to Dr. John Galgiani at the newly opened Valley...
June 15, 2012
Reported cases of valley fever by Tracy residents have risen more than 500 percent during the past three years, according to public health officials. The highest level of the fungus in San Joaquin County can be predominately found around Tracy, said Dr. Karen Furst, health officer for the San...
August 3, 2007
"Hindsight is 20/20." Millions of people understand the reality of that saying as they learn they've lived with valley fever for weeks, months or even years before proper diagnosis. More are learning to live with it every day, because valley fever is at epidemic levels across the...
January 7, 2002
Q. What's the best treatment for valley fever? A. Valley fever is an infection - usually of the lungs - caused by a fungus, Coccidioides immitis, found in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It was discovered in the San Joaquin Valley of California and is also...
February 11, 1996
They will probably never make the bestseller list, nor star in films featuring Dustin Hoffman, Bruce Willis or monkeys. Nonetheless, fungi -- the kingdom of organisms that includes molds and yeast -- have been quietly positioning themselves as the newest threat to human health, and epidemiologists...
February 6, 1996
How can you tell if a fungus is having sex? Until now, the answer to this rather arcane scientific riddle has been: not very easily. Now a team of researchers, borrowing techniques from diverse fields to study the fungus that each year gives thousands of people valley fever, say they have found...

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