from the Internet
The disease that doctors at first thought
was lung cancer was likely carried on a speck of dust.
A few years ago, Kevin Pierce, a laconic
retired sheriff who has lived his whole life in the Central Valley of
California, went to see his family physician about some chest pains. An X-ray
showed several nodules in his lungs, suggestive of a spreading cancer – not
entirely surprising since Pierce is a smoker. He was referred to UCSF
Fresno for treatment.
But when the doctors there investigated
further, they realized the nodules in his lungs were not from cancer but from a
fungal infection.
Pierce had Valley Fever, an illness caused
by the fungus Coccidioides
immitis, which grows in the hot, dry soil of the Central Valley and
across the American Southwest.
“It’s hard to be a doctor in Fresno and not
have to deal with Valley Fever,” said Michael Peterson, MD,
a pulmonologist and associate dean at UCSF Fresno. In fact, Peterson said in
his clinic’s experience, up to one-third of patients who are sent for biopsy to
confirm lung cancer turn out instead to have Valley Fever.
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