Tag Archives: Fever

In a small boutique in downtown Bakersfield, Brenda Blanton donned a styling gown and settled into a salon chair facing a mirror. Shop owner Kelly Giblin approached, not carrying scissors or a curling iron, but a small hairpiece resembling a dirty blonde bob with dark roots. “This is an amazing …

A new bill in congress is aimed at preventing the fungal disease valley fever that’s endemic to Central and Southern California. The so-called FORWARD Act , introduced by Bakersfield Congressman and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, would establish a national valley fever working group and would award grants to entities …

Buried in California’s new $ 201 billion budget is important news for those with a disease that affects many here in Central California: $ 8 million in funding for valley fever research and awareness. For several years we’ve been reporting about this airborne fungal disease which is endemic to arid …

Governor Brown signed the final budget of his tenure as governor on Wednesday, and included in it was funding aimed at combating the fungal disease valley fever. The budget includes $ 8 million for research and outreach into the fungal disease that’s caused by inhaling spores that grow in arid …

Two bills that could improve valley fever research made it one step closer to law on Thursday, passing out of the California Assembly and into the state Senate. The bills aim to streamline the state’s inconsistent reporting guidelines for valley fever , a fungal disease caused by inhaling spores that …

In the city of Lemoore, a community of 25,000 rising out of arid cropland in California’s San Joaquin Valley, almost everyone has a story about valley fever. Take Frank Bernhardt, nursing a beer at the Fleet Reserve bar on the edge of town. He first encountered the disease just after …

If you have flu-like symptoms, like cough, fever or difficulty breathing, that are lasting more than two weeks, state and Merced County health officials think you should ask your health … Click to Continue »

Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood grew up in Kern County. He hikes here, he rides horses here and he golfs here. He remembers elementary school field trips to Shark’s Tooth Hill to dig for relics here. He has done just about everything that could put him at risk for breathing …

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. AB 1279, authored by Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, initially promised $ 2 million in funding for valley fever awareness. It …

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 …

The fungal disease valley fever is most common in dry, desert areas of California and Arizona, and diagnoses tend to spike after dust storms and dry, windy weather. What’s less common is more than one case of the disease in the same family. As part of our first-person series My …

A Phoenix-based laboratory is capturing detailed images of the fungus that causes valley fever, hoping to better understand how it works. The research could shed light on why the disease spreads at higher rates for Americans of African, Filipino and Mexican descent than others, said Bridget Barker, an assistant professor …

Event set for Friday in Fresno … Click to Continue »