Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention/)
The public was not notified of a recent outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease in Anaheim until reporters asked about it, because there was no ongoing public health threat, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA).
Disneyland has shut down two cooling towers at its theme park after a dozen cases, including one death, from Legionnaire’s disease – a serious respiratory illness caused by the Legionella bacteria – were reported in Anaheim.
Bill would add $2 million to a state fund for valley fever vaccine research and create guidelines for how local, state and federal agencies report cases.
In 2011, state prisons in the Central Valley reported hundreds of cases and up to nine deaths from valley fever. But in recent years prisons have made changes and the rates have dropped significantly.
The National Institutes of Health long ignored valley fever, a disease that mostly affects people in Arizona and California. But it is now providing critical support and researchers say they are “on the cusp of doing some very exciting things.”
Estimates of valley fever cases recorded by local, state and federal agencies vary so widely that they call into question the accuracy of the figures released to the public, a Center for Health Journalism Collaborative investigation has found.
California’s current record-setting drought appears to be exacerbating the ongoing epidemic of valley fever, a sometimes debilitating, and even deadly, disease caused by fungal spores embedded in dry dirt.
In the last 30 years the fight against AIDS has been a political football. Having an HIV/AIDS action plan can make all the difference. Presidential candidates should take a stand on this life and death issue.
Since the late 1990s, Orange County has had the largest suicide-rate increase among the nation’s 20 most-populous counties, according to a Voice of OC analysis of federal suicide data. County leaders are taken aback by figures.
Top federal health officials are traveling to Bakersfield this week to hear the stories of valley fever survivors and discuss how to bring greater awareness of and funding for the sometimes crippling disease.
