Christmas 2021 Update

 Merry Day-After Christmas! Denise stayed out of the hospital again this year & is living life with Valley Fever, having a big heart for and visiting with people that are physically suffering. The fatigue still persists, as do the skin issues, seemingly carried over from the long-term on voriconazole (she switched to fluconazole partway through 2020). This year's Cocci Study Group was done via webinar "from" Tucson AZ. A vaccine study in dogs was encouraging, no dissemination that they could detect. The prime dose and booster both need to be live (killed vaccine doesn't do anything). The possibility of a valley fever breath test is being studied, researchers are confident they can find biomarkers of cocci in breath. And researchers are trying to determine if there's a genetic predisposition to dissemination, based on a case of three generations of a Tucson family that had disseminated cocci with meningitis. A mouse study indicates there may be a genetic predisposition. I look forward to hearing about more on these in future study group meetings.