Nine construction workers fell ill to valley fever this year while working on a solar panel project in Monterey County after employers allowed serious lapses in training and safety precautions, according to new information obtained by the Center for Health Journalism Collaborative on the recent outbreak.
Tag: valley fever
Posted inCountywide, Top Stories
Promise and frustration: Valley fever advocates and legislators vow to ‘press harder’ after governor rejects bill
Even as valley fever cases are sharply increasing in Central California, Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed legislation that would have created programs to inform the public about the little-known respiratory disease.
Posted inCountywide, Health & Wellness, Top Stories
Don’t Let Edie’s Death From Valley Fever Be In Vain, Her Sister Pleads
Edie Preller had been an in-home health care worker, taking care of other people who were ill. Then, in her 50s, she ended up in a losing battle for her own life, spending her last three years in and out of a hospital. Awareness campaigns could help prevent misdiagnosis.
Posted inCountywide, Top Stories
States Skimp on Valley Fever Awareness
Valley fever infects more than 13,000 people annually in Arizona and California and kills more than 100. Yet the two states spend less on public awareness about the disease in one year than what the Bakersfield City School District spends on lunch milk for a month and less than what Pima County’s Parks and Recreation Department spent on janitorial supplies in 2016.
Posted inTop Stories
Valley Fever Infections Surge in California’s Central Valley
The airborne fungal spores that cause the illness killed six Kern County residents in 2016 and infected 1,905 others, a 62 percent surge over the number infected the year prior.
Posted inCountywide, Top Stories
Assemblyman Seeks Valley Fever Funding, Overhaul of Reporting Guidelines
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.
Posted inTop Stories
Valley Fever Forces Juan Solis to Live His Life in the Shadows
The Bakersfield man contracted the respiratory disease in 2008, but it was misdiagnosed for so long that he developed complications, including skin cancer. These says Solis must avoid all contact with the sun as he fights for his life.
Posted inCountywide, Health & Wellness, Top Stories
Researchers Hoping Valley Fever Vaccine Won’t Just Go to the Dogs
A canine vaccine against valley fever, a fungal disease that sometimes leads to significant disability and even death, could be available within the next 10 years. And the work to save dogs could also advance efforts to create a vaccine for people.
Posted inCountywide, Health & Wellness, Investigative
California Prisons Reduce Risk of Valley Fever for Inmates
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.
Posted inCountywide, Health & Wellness, Top Stories
Federal Funding Fuels New Valley Fever Research
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.”
