Home  Timeline  Photo gallery

Valley fever hit epidemic proportions last year and experts are wondering if 2002 will be a repeat.

If the disease infects anywhere near the same number of Kern County residents as it did in the early 1990s, the cost could be staggering. During the epidemic years of 1991-93, valley fever costs mounted to more than $56 million. A similar outbreak now could mean even greater costs.

Researchers are making progress toward a vaccine, but the going has been slow. The Californian examines the impact of the disease and the efforts of those ìFighting the Fever.î

Kern at center of valley fever fund-raising effort

By MICHELLE TERWILLEGER Californian staff writer e-mail: mterwilleger@bakersfield.com

Sunday June 23, 2002, 12:00:00 AM

Valley fever may have knocked Kern County for a loop with a deadly epidemic in the early 1990s, but residents came back swinging.

They did so through pasta dinners, golf tournaments and other grass-roots fund-raising efforts.

The goal: A vaccine to land a knockout punch on the fungal spores that cause valley fever.

The networking, organizing and political action among Kern folks have made the county the center of funding for the vaccine project.

But the fight isn't over yet and continuing research depends on even more dollars, as well as a little luck in the business world.

Finding the money

A combination of private money, nonprofit grants and county and state money has gone toward funding valley fever research efforts over the last decade, with approximately $13.6 million raised thus far.

Next year, federal money might be added to the mix, as Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Bakersfield, has requested $500,000 to be set aside from the nation's health budget for the vaccine.

That money would help continue the research, which is progressing toward human trials, said Stanley Clark, a professor at Cal State Bakersfield who is working with the vaccine project.

The latest local effort began in the early 1990s after Cal State Bakersfield conducted a study that concluded the creation of a vaccine was feasible.

A number of organizations formed to support the effort.

* The Valley Fever Project of the Americas grew out of the Rotary Club's efforts to support vaccine research.

Former East Bakersfield Rotary President Michael Cooper got the Rotary Club involved and the group quickly joined forces with the Kern County Valley Fever Vaccine Research Foundation.

Businesses pitched in with cash donations and sponsored fund-raisers.

Annual events like a pasta dinner and the Valley Fever Golf Tournament, which raised $16,000 last year, help support the cause. Personal checks regularly roll in from businesses and individuals as well, said Cooper, president of the Valley Fever Americas Foundation.

"We never expected it to get as big as it did as fast as it did," he said.

Cooper said he believes so many people contribute because of the high number of residents who have been affected by the disease.

"There's a soft spot in people's hearts for this," Cooper said.

Valley Fever Project of the Americas is the most active local fund-raising group, having raised more than $350,000 since its creation in 1995. That money goes toward education and research.

* The Valley Fever Research Foundation began as a movement of local doctors interested in getting the vaccine project started.

* The Valley Fever Vaccine Project is another collaborative effort dedicated solely to creating a vaccine.

The researchers and their institutions are part of the project along with representatives from county government, Rotary and Cal State Bakersfield.

Money for the project flows through the Cal State Bakersfield Foundation, which cuts checks to the various research institutions.

Dollars raised by the Rotary Club remain within the Valley Fever Vaccine Project of the Americas.

When the Cal State Foundation can't pay for some research projects because of restrictions in place by the givers, the Rotary Club can fill the gap with its unrestricted money.

Talking up the project

Thomas Ashburn Hector

The two biggest sponsors of the research have been the nonprofit California Healthcare Foundation and the state of California.

The Oakland-based California Healthcare Foundation was formed in 1996 when Blue Cross of California became a for-profit company and was required by the state to create a private foundation. It provides grants for organizations throughout the state that benefit the public, particularly in health care.

Dr. George Rutherford, former public health officer for the state, spoke with leaders of the health foundation as it was forming. They agreed the vaccine effort would be a worthy public health project.

Rutherford, a professor of preventative medicine and epidemiology at University of California, San Francisco, became the principal investigator for the vaccine project and the foundation became the first large donor.

The California Healthcare Foundation has given or is committed to give $6.65 million to the project since 1998.

Around the same time, the state got on board through the efforts of Assemblyman Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield.

Ashburn was sympathetic to the issue, having participated in the valley fever vaccine trials in the 1980s. After meeting with vaccine project representatives, the assemblyman became the vaccine group's strongest political ally.

He helped secure $3 million in state funding for vaccine research between 1997 and 2000. About the same time, the state agreed to spend $700,000 of Department of Health Services funds annually for valley fever research.

Ashburn asked for $1 million in 2001 but the state granted only $500,000. He is asking for $1 million in the coming fiscal year.

State money for valley fever research so far total a little more than $6.6 million.

Meanwhile, Arizona state legislators have been slow to pony up any money, though many people in Arizona also are afflicted with valley fever each year.

"Orphan drug situation"

It is unusual for states to pay for medical research because drug and vaccine development usually is funded privately by drug companies.

But because valley fever is found only in certain parts of the southwestern United States and in parts of Latin and South America, a vaccine is unlikely to be very profitable.

For that reason, no pharmaceutical companies have expressed interest in spending money to develop a valley fever vaccine.

"It's called an orphan drug situation," Clark said.

With drug companies becoming larger through mergers and acquisitions, drug makers are only willing to spend research funds on drugs they believe will have a large market value, said Richard Hector, project director of the Valley Fever Vaccine Project.

Hector remains convinced, however, that there are drug manufacturers who will consider producing it.

"There is a plethora of smaller biotech companies that are hungry for new products," he said.

But those small companies might not have the resources to invest in developing a vaccine.

Randal Bye, manager of the Cal State Bakersfield Foundation, said the project is being careful to get patents for everything and to create a business package that would be attractive to interested drug companies.

As for research funding, Hector said he believes the project's allies at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense will help.

"We are also exploring ways to establish a partnership with government, either at the state or federal level, to ensure that this vaccine is evaluated in human trials and becomes available to those who need it," he said.

How to help People wishing to support valley fever research can send checks payable to Valley Fever Vaccine Project of the Americas to: * Valley Fever Vaccine Project of the Americas, P.O. Box 2752, Bakersfield, CA 93303.