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This Podcast Will Kill You

Ep 68 Coccidioidomycosis: It’s never a spider bite

This Podcast Will Kill You

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Health & Fitness, Science

4.817.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2021

⏱️ 81 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Don’t be daunted by the length of this disease name or just how difficult it looks to pronounce. By the end of the episode, you’ll be saying it right along with us, and bonus, you’ll also be armed with a whole bunch of excellent trivia about this fascinating fungal disease. In this episode, we dive right into all things coccidioidomycosis, also known as Valley fever, which also happens to be the first human fungal pathogen we’ve covered. We’ll walk you through its unusual dual natured lifecycle, its somewhat recent but surprisingly rich history, and the present threat it poses, especially in light of climate change and the United States prison system. This fungus is much more amongus than you may have suspected. We are also so lucky to be joined by Tori, who shared with us her firsthand account of contracting this fierce fungus.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is exactly right.

0:07.0

So my name is Tori and I'm from Utah.

0:11.0

I had always been a healthy girl with no serious ailments or illnesses.

0:16.0

I spent most of my high school cycling, swimming, running, exercise was my whole life

0:21.0

and I was always very healthy. At age 19, I created a plan to serve a religious mission

0:26.0

and then come home and spend the rest of my life doing iron man's and one day

0:30.0

making it to the Kona Iron Man Championship.

0:33.0

However, those plans would quickly change.

0:36.0

In March of 2014, I left on a religious mission to Arizona for 18 months,

0:41.0

doing service, outdoors, and teaching.

0:44.0

I ran nearly every day of this mission and did quite a lot of bike riding as well.

0:48.0

Initially going out to Arizona, we were warned about Valley fever.

0:52.0

We were told always to stay inside if there was a dust storm or if it's extra dusty outside

0:57.0

because Valley fever was in the spores of the soil or the dust.

1:01.0

While we tried to stay inside from the dust storms, being outside was inevitable

1:05.0

and being around the dust was inevitable.

1:07.0

Hello, it's Arizona and we spent so much time outside.

1:10.0

Fast forward, it was August 29th, 2015.

1:14.0

I was 17 days away from going home and seeing my family again and finishing this service.

1:20.0

And that day in my life would change forever.

1:23.0

I woke up with a bit of chest tightness but shrugged it off.

1:26.0

I still went on our morning run but could barely make it more than a quarter of a mile

...

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