San Joaquin Valley disease

San Joaquin Valley disease
A disease also called coccidioidomycosis (CM) due to a fungus called Coccidioides immitis. About 40% of people infected with this fungus develop symptoms. Most often they have an influenza-like illness with fever, cough, headaches, rash, and myalgias (muscle pains). Of those people with symptoms, 8% have severe lung disease requiring hospitalization and 7% develop disseminated infection (throughout the body). Groups at high risk from the fungus include African-Americans and Asians, pregnant women in the third trimester, smokers, the elderly, diabetics and people with an impaired immune system. Severe disease tends particularly to strike in HIV-infected persons. The mortality is high in HIV-infected persons with diffuse lung disease. CM meningitis can lead to permanent brain damage. The fungus is in the soil in semiarid areas (primarily in the "lower Sonoran life zone"). The disease is endemic (constantly present) in the southwestern US including the San Joaquin Valley in California and parts of Mexico and South America. Inhalation of airborne spores after disturbance of soil by people or natural disasters (such as wind storms and earthquakes) exposes people (as for example, construction or agricultural workers and archeologists) to the dust containing the spores. A mask helps but does not provide complete protection against the fungus. The incidence of the disease was 15/100,000 in Arizona in 1995. Of persons living in areas with endemic disease, between 10% and 50% have been found to show a positive skin test to CM. In one outbreak, 35 church members from Pennsylvania traveled to Hermosillo, Mexico, where they stayed a week to build a church. Within 2 weeks of returning home, 27 of the travelers complained of flu-like symptoms and testing revealed exposure to the fungus that causes CM. The disease is also known by a number of other names including desert fever, Posadas disease, San Joaquin fever, San Joaquin Valley fever, and valley fever.

* * *

primary coccidioidomycosis.

Medical dictionary. 2011.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • San Joaquin Valley fever (disease) — San Joa·quin Val·ley fever (disease) (sanґ wah kēnґ valґe) [San Joaquin Valley, California, where the disease is particularly prominent] primary coccidioidomycosis …   Medical dictionary

  • San Joaquin River — Coordinates: 38°04′00″N 121°51′04″W / 38.0666667°N 121.85111°W / 38.0666667; 121.85111 …   Wikipedia

  • Disease — Illness or sickness often characterized by typical patient problems (symptoms) and physical findings (signs). Disruption sequence: The events that occur when a fetus that is developing normally is subjected to a destructive agent such as the… …   Medical dictionary

  • Fever, valley — A disease also called coccidioidomycosis (CM) due to a fungus called Coccidioides immitis. About 40% of people infected with this fungus develop symptoms. Most often they have an influenza like illness with fever, cough, headaches, rash, and… …   Medical dictionary

  • Burrough Valley — Burrough Valley, California (once also called Burr Valley) is located in the Sierra Nevada foothills of eastern Fresno County, approximately thirty miles northeast of Fresno, California, at an elevation of about convert|1600|ft|m above sea level …   Wikipedia

  • Mission San José (California) — This article refers to the Spanish mission. For the neighborhood and historical town, see Mission San Jose, Fremont, California. Mission San José Mission San José as it appeared in April 2011. Location 43300 Mission Blvd …   Wikipedia

  • Mission San Juan Capistrano — This article is about the mission in California. For the mission of the same name in Texas, see Mission San Juan Capistrano (Texas). Mission San Juan Capistrano Mission San Juan Capistrano, photochrom print by William Henry Jackson c. 1899.… …   Wikipedia

  • coccidioidomycosis — A variable, benign, severe, or sometimes fatal systemic mycosis due to inhalation of arthroconidia of Coccidioides immitis. In benign forms of the infection, the lesions are limited to the upper respiratory tract, lungs, and near lymph node s; in …   Medical dictionary

  • CM (coccidioidomycosis) — A disease due to a fungus called Coccidioides immitis. About 40% of people infected with this fungus develop symptoms. Most often they have an influenza like illness with fever, cough, headaches, rash, and myalgias (muscle pains). Of those people …   Medical dictionary

  • Desert fever — A disease also called coccidioidomycosis (CM) due to a fungus called Coccidioides immitis. About 40% of people infected with this fungus develop symptoms. Most often they have an influenza like illness with fever, cough, headaches, rash, and… …   Medical dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”