Health Effects
The winds carry Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii spores into nonendemic areas, a pathogenic fungus that causes Coccidioidomycosis ("Valley Fever"). Symptomatic infection (40% of cases) usually presents as an influenza-like illness with fever, cough, headaches, rash, and myalgia (muscle pain). Serious complications include severe pneumonia, lung nodules, and disseminated disease, where the fungus spreads throughout the body. The disseminated form of Coccidioidomycosis can devastate the body, causing skin ulcers, abscesses, bone lesions, severe joint pain, heart inflammation, urinary tract problems, meningitis, and often death.
The United States government worked on a vaccine for Coccidioidomycosis during the mid-1960s, in the hopes of weaponizing C. immitis for use as an incapacitant. But the work was abandoned when medical epidemiology uncovered lethal effects on several segments of the population, and C. immitis was reclassified as a lethal agent.
There is some belief the winds also create positive ions, which are believed to affect mood negatively. Many believe this to be the cause for the statistical increase in the number of suicides and homicides during these times.
Read more about this topic: Santa Ana Winds
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