Valley Fever: a Silent, Unpredictable Menace
Thursday, February 18, 2016 VOLUME LIII, NUMBER 7 Your Local News Source Since 1963 SERVING DUBLIN, LIVERMORE, PLEASANTON, SUNOL Valley Fever: A Silent, Unpredictable Menace By Jeff Garberson cause of his illness, so doctors gave disease endemic to California and worsened. He continues to take it When a Livermore retiree’s him a more massive dose of anti- the entire southwest. today and puts up with side effects cough turned to pneumonia in biotics. These didn’t help either. Quickly treated with one of the like hair loss. See Inside Section A late 2013, a standard course of The doctors put him in intensive standard anti-fungal medications, His experience illustrates the Section A is filled with antibiotics didn’t help. care on a respirator, but he contin- fluconazole, he began to improve. challenge of dealing with what information about arts, people, The retiree was fit for his age, ued to decline. They told his wife Today, the retiree, who asked has been called a “silent epidemic” but he soon became so weak he to prepare for the worst. not to be named in order to pro- -- Valley Fever, an illness that is entertainment and special events. couldn’t get out of a chair. At the last minute, the results of tect his family’s privacy, is on difficult to diagnose for which There are education stories, a His wife took him to an emer- a sophisticated test from UC-Davis his feet, easily tired but no longer there is no cure and which cannot variety of features, and the arts gency room, where X- rays arrived, showing what simpler tests in imminent danger.
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