Valley Fever Epidemiology: Outbreak Response Plan
This paper examines coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever), a fungal infection caused by Coccidioides found in Southwestern U.S. soils, through the lens of descriptive and analytical epidemiology. It discusses why the disease poses a significant epidemiological problem given its rising incidence, geographic spread, and diagnostic challenges. The paper outlines the epidemiological approach to surveillance, including primary and secondary data collection methods, and explains how descriptive and analytic frameworks work together to form and test hypotheses about disease spread. It concludes with a practical four-step outbreak response plan addressing prevention, public warning, high-risk population monitoring, and health system coordination.
- Introduction to Valley Fever: Overview of coccidioidomycosis and paper purpose
- Why Valley Fever Is an Epidemiological Problem: Rising incidence, geographic spread, diagnostic challenges
- Epidemiological Approach and Surveillance Methods: Surveillance priorities and evaluation criteria
- Descriptive and Analytic Epidemiology Applied: How each epidemiological framework applies to Valley Fever
- Data Systems and Secondary Surveillance: Data collection methods and secondary data sources
- Determining Outbreak Status: Steps for classifying whether an outbreak is occurring
- Outbreak Response Plan: Four-step plan for prevention and outbreak control
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What makes this paper effective
- Moves logically from disease background to epidemiological theory to concrete action steps, keeping a clear argumentative thread throughout.
- Integrates peer-reviewed sources effectively alongside CDC data to support each analytical claim, lending credibility at each stage.
- The outbreak response plan section translates abstract epidemiological concepts into numbered, actionable steps, making the paper practically useful.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied epidemiological reasoning — taking theoretical frameworks (descriptive vs. analytic epidemiology, primary vs. secondary surveillance) and grounding them in a specific, real-world disease case. Rather than merely defining terms, each concept is linked directly back to coccidioidomycosis, showing how abstract methods translate into concrete public health decisions.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with an executive summary and purpose statement establishing the disease context. It then builds systematically: defining the epidemiological problem, outlining the surveillance approach, distinguishing descriptive from analytic methods, explaining data and secondary surveillance systems, evaluating whether an outbreak exists, and concluding with a four-step outbreak response plan. The conclusion ties all frameworks back together. This sequential, layered structure is well-suited to public health writing.
Introduction to Valley Fever
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2018a), coccidioidomycosis, also known as Valley Fever, is an infection caused by the fungus Coccidioides. The fungus is commonly found in the soil of the Southwestern United States and Mexico. When people breathe in the spores of the fungus, which can hang in dusty air, they can develop Valley Fever. People who already have weakened immune systems are most likely at risk for developing the disease (Woods et al., 2000). Those with healthier immune systems tend to recover within a few weeks, though sometimes it can take months to heal completely, and antifungal medication may be provided for treatment.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss why several patients testing positive for coccidioidomycosis represents an epidemiological problem, what approach an epidemiologist would take to address the issue, and how to develop an outbreak response plan. The paper describes how descriptive and analytical epidemiology can be used to provide a response plan for the disease.
Why Valley Fever Is an Epidemiological Problem
Epidemiology is a field in medicine that deals with the incidence, distribution, and potential control of diseases. Valley Fever is a problem for the field of epidemiology because the rate of incidence is so high and control of the disease is so difficult given the manner in which it is contracted. According to the CDC (2018b), there were 14,364 cases of Valley Fever reported in 2017, and "most of these cases were in people who live in Arizona or California, [where] rates of Valley Fever are typically highest among people age 60 and older." It is estimated, moreover, that Valley Fever is responsible for approximately 30% of all pneumonia-related cases in the region each year, though researchers have argued that the actual rate may be even higher since testing rates are so low and infrequent (Valdivia et al., 2006).
Additionally, as McCotter et al. (2019) note, "the incidence of reported coccidioidomycosis in the past two decades has increased greatly; monitoring its changing epidemiology is essential for understanding its burden on patients and the healthcare system and for identifying opportunities for prevention and education" (p. 958). Valley Fever is difficult to diagnose and treat, and because of the high rate of incidence and distribution, its impact on health and the healthcare system, the potential control of Valley Fever poses a genuine problem for the field. Prevention, as always, is the best medicine — and that applies in the case of Valley Fever no less than in any other situation.
References
Brown, J., Benedict, K., Park, B. J., & Thompson III, G. R. (2013). Coccidioidomycosis: epidemiology. Clinical Epidemiology, 5, 185.
Cairns, L., Blythe, D., Kao, A., Pappagianis, D., Kaufman, L., Kobayashi, J., & Hajjeh, R. (2000). Outbreak of coccidioidomycosis in Washington State residents returning from Mexico. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 30(1), 61–64.
CDC. (2018a). Valley fever. Retrieved from
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McCotter, O. Z., Benedict, K., Engelthaler, D. M., Komatsu, K., Lucas, K. D., Mohle-Boetani, J. C., ... & Nguyen, A. (2019). Update on the epidemiology of coccidioidomycosis in the United States. Medical Mycology, 57(Supplement_1), S30–S40.
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Valdivia, L., Nix, D., Wright, M., Lindberg, E., Fagan, T., Lieberman, D., ... & Galgiani, J. N. (2006). Coccidioidomycosis as a common cause of community-acquired pneumonia. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 12(6), 958.
Woods, C. W., McRill, C., Plikaytis, B. D., Rosenstein, N. E., Mosley, D., Boyd, D., ... & Hajjeh, R. A. (2000). Coccidioidomycosis in human immunodeficiency virus-infected persons in Arizona, 1994–1997: incidence, risk factors, and prevention. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 181(4), 1428–1434.
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