TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — After seeing a rise in Valley Fever cases over the years, the University of Arizona Valley Fever Center for Excellence launched a dashboard in February of 2024 to bring awareness to the disease and help doctors and patients monitor when Valley Fever cases are peaking.
After a year of collecting data, the center says it has encouraged doctors to not only test more frequently for Valley Fever, but it’s also helping patients get diagnosed sooner.
Dr. John Galgiani, director of the Valley Fever Center for Excellence, says about 14% of pneumonia cases are caused by Valley Fever. However, thanks to the dashboard, which gathers information on Valley Fever cases from 55 Banner Urgent Cares in Phoenix and Tucson, they now know that number can be as high as 44%.
The center has used this data to encourage clinicians to test pneumonia patients for Valley Fever by reminding them monthly by e-mail or through their electronic medical record.
"It’s like the positive feedback that you get if you are a student in a class and you just say, 'see what you did, how important it was,' that kind of encourages them to do that more often," said Dr. Fariba Donovan, a researcher and physician at the University of Arizona Valley Fever Center for Excellence.
The urgent cares are now at a testing rate of 45%, an increase of 18% from last February.
"It’s been a very nice ride to see this improvement and also I think it raises awareness of this disease," Dr. Galgiani said. "Getting the right diagnosis gives you a much more precise way of getting treated for exactly what you got."
He also believes the increase in testing will help patients who are diagnosed sooner save money.
"Many patients get hospitalized not because they need to be, but because they've been sick for too long and nobody had bothered to test them for Valley Fever," he said.
But with more testing comes more diagnoses, so the center has expanded staffing to meet patient demand.
"We can now see patients within five days of getting a new diagnosis of Valley Fever," Galgiani said. "It's very, very exciting that we can now. People with infections shouldn't have to wait three and a half months to figure out what to do about it."
Though Galgiani recommended testing pneumonia patients for Valley Fever, he says there have also been more patients being diagnosed who didn't have pneumonia.
The data identified painful red bumps, specifically on the shins, as a common symptom.
"We learned from the dashboard data that in Arizona, if you get this distinctive rash, it's due to Valley Fever more than 60% of the time," Galgiani said.
Other symptoms include aches and pains, fever, or weight loss, Galgiani explained.
Now, they’re using information from the dashboard to create a model that uses artificial intelligence to predict the intensity of Valley Fever in the community from month to month.
———
Maria Staubs is a reporter for KGUN 9, she joined the KGUN 9 team in July of 2024 after graduating from Arizona State University. Share your story ideas with Maria by emailing maria.staubs@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, or Twitter.
