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. 2022 Aug 1;6(8):e2022GH000642.
doi: 10.1029/2022GH000642. eCollection 2022 Aug.

Dust Storms, Valley Fever, and Public Awareness

Daniel Q Tong  1 , Morgan E Gorris  2 , Thomas E Gill  3 , Karin Ardon-Dryer  4 , Julian Wang  1 , Ling Ren  1
Affiliations

Dust Storms, Valley Fever, and Public Awareness

Daniel Q Tong et al. Geohealth. .

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.

Keywords: Valley fever; coccidioidomycosis; dust; environmental.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest relevant to this study.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Data sources of reported dust events in the Storm Events Database (NCEI, 2022) from 2006 to 2018 that were used in Comrie (2021) work. ASOS is Automated Surface Observing Systems, AWOS is Automated Weather Observing System, and unknown are unidentified reporting sources.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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