Latest news with #Foglia
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
A fungus in Utah soil can lead to lung infections — but officials say there is ‘no reason to panic'
ST. GEORGE, Utah () — If you have been suffering from pneumonia-like symptoms lately (but you don't have pneumonia), you may have ingested Health officials say it's more common than you may think, especially in southern Utah. 'Washington County has the highest rate of Valley fever in the state,' Dr. Katharine S. Walter told 'And we think it is severely underreported compared to parts of California and Arizona, which are very well known to be endemic for the fungus.' , or Coccidioidomycosis, is a fungal lung infection that like fatigue, cough, fever, shortness of breath, and a rash. It occurs after spores from Coccidioides — which live in soil and dust in — are breathed in. If the FDA removes fluoride supplements, are there other options to protect teeth? Dentist weighs in Dr. Walter and Dr. Ginamarie Foglia — both epidemiologists — presented during a lecture series in southern Utah about the effects of Valley fever and concerns related to the changing environment. The aim of the event was to spread awareness of the prevalence of Valley fever, not to spread fear. 'There's no reason to panic,' Foglia told 'It's manageable. It's just that many people don't know what it is.' Foglia said that while Utahns should not panic about the potential for these types of infections, it is important to know what the risks and symptoms are. An understanding of the symptoms could help people better manage the infection. 'Many times it's seen as a bacterial infection, and people are given antibiotics, they don't get better,' Foglia said. 'So, it's really to alert people and to make them aware that it exists here.' The says many people who have Valley fever experience mild symptoms, and 'often get better without medication within a few months.' In some cases, severe infections may spread to other parts of the body, and cause patients to need more long-term treatment. 'This is a disease we should all be worried about because everyone is at risk, and the people at most risk are the people who work outside, who are constantly exposed to dust and soil, like agricultural workers — construction workers,' Walter said. Valley fever occurs after spores from Coccidioides — which live in soil and dust in — are breathed in. When that soil or dust is disturbed (such as during construction or a windstorm), the risk of breathing in those spores increases. The CDC reports that many people do not get sick from breathing in the spores, and most people who do fall ill get better on their own. However, for developing severe forms of Valley fever. If symptoms of Valley fever last longer than a week, officials recommend visiting a healthcare provider. Valley fever is , according to the CDC. Between 10,000 and 20,000 cases are reported to the CDC each year, with most cases reported in Arizona and California. 'Cases frequently are never diagnosed or misdiagnosed because many patients are not tested for Valley fever,' the CDC says. Foglia and Walter said many people often receive a delayed Valley fever diagnosis after initially being diagnosed with a bacterial infection. Walter also spoke about the potential role played by climate change in expanding the areas where the fungus can be found. 'We think that with a changing climate, that the area where the fungus can thrive and survive is likely to expand and change, and that's one thing we really need to study,' Walter said. The CDC says it is 'very difficult to avoid breathing in the fungus' — but there are still ways to help reduce exposure. For example, the CDC recommends using air filtration methods when indoors and avoiding areas (like construction sites) that have a lot of dust. Wearing an N95 respirator when around dust may also help, the CDC says. For more detailed explanations about Valley fever and prevention methods, . Joseph Degolyer contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBC
25-04-2025
- CBC
Chasing butterflies around the globe changed this photographer's worldview
In the early days of the pandemic, when most people couldn't travel anywhere, Lucas Foglia became obsessed with the butterflies that go almost everywhere. Painted lady butterflies, found on almost every continent, are among the planet's most prolific travellers. One population, in particular, makes an epic, multigenerational journey every year from Europe to Africa and back. So in 2021, as soon as Foglia was able to board a plane, the San Francisco Bay Area photographer set off for Italy to find the butterflies that had captured his imagination, and work with the scientists tracking what's believed to be the world's longest butterfly migration route. But the result of that journey, the photography book Constant Bloom, is as much about humans as it is about butterflies, says Foglia. "In the beginning of the project, I thought I was going to just photograph butterflies and follow them wherever they went," Foglia told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "But pretty soon I realized that the longest butterfly migration now depends on people." In his book, Foglia explores not only how human activity impacts the painted lady's migration route, but also the parallels between the butterflies' movements and the vast and perilous journeys that people make across borders every day in search of security and sustenance. "When I look at the photographs, I think about both what they are and what they teach me," he said. "It's been a transformative journey, to say the least." Painted lady butterflies 'incredible to see' Painted lady butterflies migrate with the changing seasons, chasing the warm weather so they can have a constant supply of nectar upon which to feast, and favourable conditions to mate and reproduce — hence the book's title, Constant Bloom. In North America, they travel between Canada and Central America. In Asia, they cross the Himalayas. And in Europe, they make a nearly 14,000-kilometre round trip between Scandanavia and sub-Saharan Africa, crossing both desert and ocean, in a journey that spans between eight and 10 generations. "Painted lady butterflies are really special in how far they migrate, and that they have these really large populations," biologist Megan Reich, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Ottawa who studies their European-African migration, said Foglia. "They go through these outbreak cycles, and they'll make the news because there's so many butterflies passing through a city and it's really incredible to see." The species even once made a 4,200-kilometre transatlantic journey across the ocean from West Africa to French Guiana in South America, likely blown off course by wind currents to one of the few places on the planet they're not supposed to be. Reich was part of the international team who mapped that journey by analyzing wind patterns, sequencing DNA of the pollen grains they carried, and analyzing the isotopic compositions, or chemical signatures, of their wings. "It's quite incredible that the butterfly was able to survive this journey," she said. "We figured it spent five to eight days flying over the open ocean." Looking for butterflies, and finding human stories That resilience is something Foglia came to admire deeply about the painted lady as he spent nearly four years traversing 17 countries to capture images of the butterflies and the people and places they intersect with. "I don't look for butterflies. I look for what butterflies are looking for," he said. "So I would first look for flowers." But climate change and human encroachment into wild habitats means wildflowers aren't always blooming when and where they're supposed to. "As droughts and other weather has become unpredictable, sometimes it's been harder to find them along the route that their migration has travelled for millions of years," he said. But the butterflies have adapted. Foglia, therefore, frequently found himself in parks and gardens, and other places where people are, striking up conversations. "People like butterflies," he said. "And when they learn that the butterflies they're seeing outside are travelling across the world to get there, it was meaningful for people to hear and learn about, and then think of themselves as connected to other places across borders." Crossing borders While photographing butterflies in the Roman ruins of northern Jordan, Foglia met a group of Palestinian and Syrian refugees making their own migration. "I saw flowers blooming in between the stones of these Roman ruins and thought that the butterflies had been flying to those flowers for millions of years before the Roman Empire had risen and fallen," he said. "And the layers of politics and power and history in that place stuck with me." His journey eventually took him to Tunisia on the coastline of the most northern tip of Africa. "I saw butterflies on these beautiful purple flowers in between charred trunks of trees that had burned in a wildfire," he said. "And the butterflies would drink nectar from those purple flowers, and fly across the Mediterranean Sea." That Mediterranean crossing the butterflies make so freely is now the deadliest human migration route in the world. More than 28,000 people have died making the journey since 2014, according to the International Organization of Migration, including 2,452 last year alone. While in Tunisia, Foglia met met a group of teenagers who spent the afternoon with him looking for butterflies. He photographed the youths with Mediterranean as a backdrop. Later, one of those boys set out on a journey of his own along that deadly route, following in the butterflies' path. "[He] called me on WhatsApp a few months later, telling me that he had gotten to Italy on a boat and asked for help — and also asked if the butterflies had gotten there safely," Foglia said. " That transformed the project for me. I felt like I had to interweave those photographs of people migrating alongside ... the photographs of butterflies migrating across the sea." The images from Constant Bloom a re currently on display at the Fredericks & Freiser Gallery in New York City. Foglia, meanwhile, says his time chasing butterflies across borders has compelled him to action. He now volunteers for refugee resettlement organizations, and donates his photographs for them to use in their advocacy. "If I was talking to my grandchild, I might say that I did a project at a point in history when a lot of people and countries were isolating themselves and borders were strong and militarized," Foglia said. "The lesson I got from following painted lady butterflies across countries and continents was that both people and nature are connected across borders. And because we're connected, we all share a responsibility to care for nature and each other."
