2008 Woodie Awards
Hans Einstein talks Valley Fever
Cousin of Albert Einstein shares his expertise with BC students and faculty in the Fireside Room.
Katherine J. White
Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: News
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It's also known as Valley Fever, which is caused by Coccidioides immitis, a soil-dwelling fungus resembling mildew or yeast.
Hans E. Einstein, professor of clinical medicine, emeritus, for the University of Southern California, lectured in Bakersfield College's Fireside Room Oct. 24 as a continued part of BC's Eminent Speakers series.
He said that Coccidioidomycosis is often called "Cocci" for short and is also known as Posada-Wernicke's disease, desert fever, San Joaquin fever, desert rheumatism, California's disease and coccidioidal granuloma.
The sagacious, yet spry and elfish-looking elderly man, cousin to Albert Einstein, and chairman of medicine at Kern Medical Center, showed a slide-rendered 19th-century photo of a swollen-faced, cauliflower-skinned Argentine soldier who was the first recorded victim of the disease. Einstein also showed a slide of the first American case, which occurred in 1896. The lesion-ridden afflicted man was a Portuguese fisherman working in the San Francisco Bay area.
"No, this is not Mike Stepanovich's high school graduation picture," Einstein quipped, referring to the new director for the BC Foundation who introduced him. The audience chuckled.
Wearing a blue jacket, gray pants and strangely incongruous running shoes, Berlin-born Einstein described Coccidioides immitis as a fungus or mold and member of the mushroom family, which grows best in areas such as Arizona, New Mexico, west Texas, parts of central America, Argentina, northwest Mexico, California's San Joaquin Valley, and other areas with dry weather and sandy soils. The Sahara, Gobi and Negev deserts are fertile areas as well. Most recently, Brazil has experienced the growth of that particular fungus. Einstein mentioned that if an area contains creosote bushes, then that is a Valley Fever-prone area.
According to Einstein, the mold develops hyphae with chains of arthroconidia, and winds disperse the arthrospores, which are inhaled by vulnerable people. From within the lungs, the arthroconidia soon begins the parasitic stage and forms spherules. According to Einstein, each spherule has within it endospores, which soon burst and then release more endospores. A 10-14-day incubation period starts before symptoms appear.
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