Abstract
Following the 17 January 1994 Northridge, California earthquake (M = 6.7), Ventura County, California, experienced a major outbreak ofcoccidioidomycosis (CM), commonly known as valley fever, a respiratory disease contracted byinhaling airborne fungal spores. In the 8 weeks following the earthquake (24 Januarythrough 15 March), 203 outbreak-associated cases were reported, which is about an order of magnitude more than the expected number of cases, and three of these cases were fatal.Simi Valley, in easternmost Ventura County, had the highest attack rate in the county,and the attack rate decreased westward across the county. The temporal and spatial distribution of CM cases indicates that the outbreak resulted from inhalation of spore-contaminated dust generated by earthquake-triggered landslides. Canyons North East of Simi Valleyproduced many highly disrupted, dust-generating landslides during the earthquake andits aftershocks. Winds after the earthquake were from the North East, which transporteddust into Simi Valley and beyond to communities to the West. The three fatalities from the CM epidemic accounted for 4 percent of the total earthquake-related fatalities.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
fever.htm.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 1994, Update: Coccidioidomycosis - California, 1991-1993, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 43(23), 421–423.
Drutz, D.J. and Catanzaro, A.: 1978, Coccidioidomycosis [Parts I and II], American Review of Respiratory Disease 117, 559–585, 727-771.
Edwards, P.Q. and Palmer, C.E.: 1957, Prevalence of sensitivity to coccidioidin, with special reference to specific and nonspecific reactions to coccidioidin and to histoplasmin, Diseases of the Chest 31, 35–60.
Einstein, H.E. and Johnson, R.H.: 1993, Coccidioidomycosis: New aspects of epidemiology and therapy, Clinical Infectious Diseases 16, 349–356.
Elconin, A.F., Egeberg, M.C., Bald, J.G., Matkin, A.O. and Egeberg, R.O.: 1967, A fungicide effective against Coccidioides immitis in the soil, in L. Ajello (ed.), Coccidioidomycosis, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ, pp. 319–321.
Fiese, M.J.: 1958, Geographic distribution of Coccidioides immitis, in Coccidioidomycosis, Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, IL, pp. 53–76.
Fisher, F.S., Bultman, M.W. and Pappagianis, D.: 2000, Operational guidelines (version 1.0) for geological fieldwork in areas endemic for coccidioidomycosis (valley fever), U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 00-348, 16 pp.
Harp, E.L. and Jibson, R.W.: 1995, Inventory of landslides triggered by the 1994 Northridge, California earthquake, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 95-213, 17 pp.
Harp, E.L. and Jibson, R.W.: 1996, Landslides triggered by the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake, Seismological Society of America Bulletin 86(1B), S319–S332.
International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care: 2002, Website on education in co-infectious diseases, http://www.iapac.org/clinmgt/diseases/fungal/coccfig3.html.
Jibson, R.W., Harp, E.L., Schneider, E., Hajjeh, R.A. and Spiegel, R.A.: 1998, An outbreak of coccidioidomycosis (valley fever) caused by landslides triggered by the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake, in C.W. Welby and M.E. Gowan (eds.), A Paradox of Power: Voices of Warning and Reason in the Geosciences, Vol. XII, Geological Society of America Reviews in Engineering Geology, pp. 53–61.
Pappagianis, D.: 1988, Epidemiology of coccidioidomycosis, Current Topics in Medical Mycology 2, 199–238.
Schneider, E., Hajjeh, R.A., Spiegel, R.A., Jibson, R.W., Harp, E.L., Marshall, G.A., Gunn, R.A., McNeil, M.M., Pinner, R.W., Baron, R.C., Burger, R.C., Hutwanger, L.C., Crump, C., Kaufman, L., Reef, S.E., Feldman, G.M., Pappagianis, D. and Werner, S.B.: 1997, A coccidioidomycosis outbreak following the Northridge earthquake, Ventura County, California, January-March 1994, Journal of the American Medical Association 277(11), 904–908.
Shedlock, K.M. and Tanner, J.G.: 1999, Seismic hazard map of the western hemisphere, Annali di Geofisica 42, 1199–1214.
Smith, C.E., Beard, R.R., Rosenberger, H.G. and Whiting, E.G.: 1946, Effect of season and dust control on coccidioidomycosis, Journal of the American Medical Association 132, 833–838.
Stevens, D.A.: 1995, Coccidioidomycosis, New England Journal of Medicine 332, 1077–1082.
Swatek, F.E., Omieczynski, D.T. and Plunkett, O.A.: 1967, Coccidioides immitis in California, in L. Ajello (ed.), Coccidioidomycosis, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ, pp. 255–264.
Wald, D.J. and Heaton, T.H.: 1994, A dislocation model of the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake determined from strong ground motions, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 94-278, 53 pp.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jibson, R.W. A Public Health Issue Related To Collateral Seismic Hazards: The Valley Fever Outbreak Triggered By The 1994 Northridge, California Earthquake. Surveys in Geophysics 23, 511–528 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021226827679
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021226827679