Radio Programs Carry Crucial Valley Fever Information Across the State
Fellowship Story Showcase
Radio Programs Carry Crucial Valley Fever Information Across the State
Several California radio stations are helping to call attention to the terrible toll of valley fever by broadcasting reports and interview programs full of valuable information for listeners across the state.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Reporting on Health Collaborative members are taking to the airwaves, joining researchers, doctors and community leaders in the effort to share crucial information about Valley Fever with the community.
In recent weeks, Valley Public Radio of the San Joaquin Valley, Californian Radio, based in Bakersfield and airing on KERN Radio Newstalk, Radio Bilingue, with stations in Fresno, Bakersfield, El Centro/Calexico, Salinas, Modesto/Stockton, Mendocino County, and Paso Robles, and Capital Public Radio, based in Sacramento with seven stations covering a wide area of central and northern California, have all broadcast reports and interview programs on the air-borne illness.
Juanita Stevenson spoke with journalist Rebecca Plevin of the bilingual newspaper Vida en el Valle about the "Just One Breath" series from the Reporting on Health Collaborative. Included in the program are interviews with John N. Galgiani, MD, director of the Valley Fever Center for Excellence at the University of Arizona, and Kirt Emery, health assessment and epidemiology program manager with the Kern County Public Health Services Department.
John Arthur hosts an edition of Californian Radio, which included Reporting on Health Collaborative journalist Kellie Schmitt, discussing valley fever.
Thousands of people in California, Arizona and the Southwest are being diagnosed annually with Valley Fever, and many thousands more have the lethal disease but find it hard to spot it. Some say the infection has swelled into epidemic proportions. Airing from the San Joaquin Valley, epicenter of the disease, Línea Abierta speaks with the mother of a patient, an epidemiologist comments on the problems doctors face to detect and treat the disease, and a journalist who has been covering the story reports on the fast rise of the number of cases and the widespread lack of awareness about Valley Fever. This program is produced in partnership with the Reporting on Health Collaborative.
Guests: Valerie Gorospe, Mother of patient, Delano, CA; Richard Ríos, Epidemiologist and Program Manager, Merced County Department of Public Health, Merced, CA, www.co.merced.ca.us ; Yesenia Amaro, Healthcare reporter, Merced Sun-Star, Merced, CA, www.mercedsunstar.com
VPR's Valley Edition continues their series of special reports on the fungal disease known as valley fever. Journalist Rebecca Plevin from the Reporting on Health Collaborative shares the story of a young girl from Delano who contracted the disease last year, changing her life forever. Host Juanita Stevenson also talks with Yesenia Amaro, a health reporter for the Merced Sun-Star and member of the collaborative, about the effort to bring more attention to this disease, and Dr. Dee Lacy, an infectious disease specialist with Kaiser Permanente Fresno.
