Dust Storms, Valley Fever, and Public Awareness
Abstract
We discuss several issues raised by Comrie (2021, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GH000504), which uses a crowdsourced data set to study dust storms and coccidioidomycosis (Valley fever). There is inconsistency in the term “dust storm” used by science communities. The dust data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Storm Events Database are from diverse sources, unsuitable for assessing dust‐coccidioidomycosis relationships. Population exposure to dust or Coccidioides needs to consider the frequency, magnitude, and duration of dust events. Given abundant evidence that dust storms are a viable driver to transport pathogens, it is in best public interest to advocate dust storms may put people at risk for contracting Valley fever.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.1029/2022gh000642
Entities
People
- Daniel Q Tong
- Julian Wang
- Karin Ardon-Dryer
- Ling Ren
- Morgan Gorris
- Thomas E. Gill
Organizations
- George Mason University
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- NASA Earth Science
- Texas Tech University
- University of Texas at El Paso