The Zoonotic B-List
Nine stories of disease you've never heard of and what you can learn from them. In Spring of 2024, a group of UCLA undergraduate Human Biology and Society majors—HBS majors—set out to explore the B-list of diseases. But they nonetheless prevailed and together they created this amazing series stories about a B-list of zoonotic diseases, from Brucellosis to Virulent Newcastle Disease. Together, they explored a series of diseases you've never heard of and asked: what can we learn from them?
The Zoonotic B-List
Down in the Dirt: Digging Deep Into Valley Fever
Coccidioidomycosis, better known as Valley Fever, is a zoonotic disease caused by a fungus. In this episode, we delve into the biological basics of Valley Fever as well its social implications, truly encapsulating the HBS way! Join us as we uncover four “mysteries” that reveal a unique relationship between dirt and disease. Maybe dirt isn't just a passive thing we should ignore… maybe it’s alive!
Produced by Abigail Holder, Nahomy Cabrera and Megan Markow
These podcast episodes were created by members of the 2024 Spring Capstone course in the Human Biology and Society major at UCLA's Institute for Society and Genetics (https://socgen.ucla.edu/). The faculty sponsor is Christopher Kelty. For questions or concerns email ckelty@ucla.edu. For more information about any of these diseases please consult the US Centers for Disease Control (https://www.cdc.gov/) .