Myrnie Gifford

Myrnie Ade Gifford (1892–1966) was an American medical physician. She was the first to identify that San Joaquin Valley Fever was the primary stage of coccidioidomycosis.

Myrnie Ade Gifford
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Born1892
Died1966
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
Stanford University
Mount Holyoke College
Known forCoccidioidomycosis identification
Scientific career
InstitutionsSan Francisco General Hospital

Early life and education

Gifford was born to Charles Clinton and Augusta Leona Gifford in National City, California.[1] She completed her bachelor's degree at Mount Holyoke College and graduated in 1915.[2] She attended Stanford University to study medicine and earned her medical degree in 1920.[3][4] She moved to the University of California, Berkeley for her doctoral studies.[3][5] Gifford was an intern and house officer at San Francisco General Hospital.[6][7] She completed a Certificate in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in 1934.[2]

Career

Gifford was the first doctor to investigate a Californian disease called San Joaquin Valley Fever; a disease that cause joint pain and erythema multiforme.[8][9] Coccidioidomycosis was first identified by an Argentinian medical student, Alejandro Posadas, in 1892, the year Gifford that was born.[10] It was once considered to be lethal and rare, but was shown by Gifford to be frequent and manageable.[11] She was an Assistant Health Officer for Kern County, California from 1934.[6][12] Whilst there, she reported that valley fever patients developed a skin sensitivity (erythema nodosum) when injected with a coccidioides antigen.[13][14][15]

She began to conduct skin tests on all patients suffering from valley fever; and found that whilst some were symptomless, they were all positive for coccidioidomycosis.[13][16] Gifford was the first person to recognise that desert fever and valley fever were caused by the coccidioides fungus.[3] This work received national recognition.[17] She was the first to demonstrate that valley fever were the primary stages of the coccidioidomycosis infection.[18] In 1938, Gifford joined E. C. Dickson to explain that the infection resembles primary tuberculosis and a full clinical recovery is possible.[19] She continued to work on coccidioidomycosis and found that it occurred more often in men than in women and people of ethnic minorities.[20] Over 80% of the patients who died had been engaged in agriculture or work where dust could have been involved.[20]

She continued to advocate for migrant communities and found that 25% of the Arvin Federal Labor Camp were positive for valley fever.[21] Gifford retired in 1954 and lived with her sister Myrtle Glifford.[17][22] She died in 1966.[23] There is a library dedicated to her honor at Kern County Public Health Services Department.[3][24]

References
  1. "Message Boards". www.ancestry.com. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  2. "RECIPIENTS OF CERTIFICATES IN PUBLIC HEALTH" (PDF). Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  3. csubedocent (2015-02-20). "Dr. Myrnie Gifford". CSUB Library Archives eDocent. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  4. "The Stanford Daily 8 June 1920 — The Stanford Daily". stanforddailyarchive.com. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  5. "The American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) from the American Public Health Association (APHA) publications". American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health. 56 (6): 999–XXXIX. 1966. doi:10.2105/ajph.56.6.999.
  6. "Myrnie Ada Gifford 1915". www.mtholyoke.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  7. "THE BARRE DAILY TIMES" (PDF). THE BARRE DAILY TIMES. 1919-07-01.
  8. Ainsworth, G. C. (2002-11-07). Introduction to the History of Medical and Veterinary Mycology. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521524551.
  9. "The 1930s Migration to the Southern San Joaquin Valley" (PDF). Cal State. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  10. Hirschmann, J. V. (2007-05-01). "The Early History of Coccidioidomycosis: 1892-1945". Clinical Infectious Diseases. 44 (9): 1202–1207. doi:10.1086/513202. ISSN 1058-4838. PMID 17407039.
  11. Galgiani, John N. (2007-09-01). "Coccidioidomycosis: Changing Perceptions and Creating Opportunities for Its Control". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1111 (1): 1–18. doi:10.1196/annals.1406.041. ISSN 1749-6632. PMID 17344530. S2CID 12488285.
  12. "History of Valley Fever | Kern County Valley Fever". Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  13. "Spores, Dust and Valley Fever" (PDF). British Society for Mycopathology. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  14. Welsh, Oliverio; Vera-Cabrera, Lucio; Rendon, Adrian; Gonzalez, Gloria; Bonifaz, Alexandro (2012-11-01). "Coccidioidomycosis". Clinics in Dermatology. Systemic Mycoses. 30 (6): 573–591. doi:10.1016/j.clindermatol.2012.01.003. ISSN 0738-081X. PMID 23068145.
  15. "True Pathogenic Fungi & Opportunistic Fungi Mycoses". www.clt.astate.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  16. MD, Kevin Glynn (2017-08-03). Gasping for Air: How Breathing Is Killing Us and What We Can Do about It. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442246249.
  17. "Bakersfield Californian Archives, Dec 31, 1957, p. 12". newspaperarchive.com. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  18. Gifford, Myrnie A.; Dickson, Ernest C. (1938-11-01). "Coccidioides Infection (Coccidioidomycosis)". Archives of Internal Medicine. 62 (5): 853–871. doi:10.1001/archinte.1938.00180160132011. ISSN 0730-188X.
  19. Pendergrass, Robert C.; Kunstadter, Ralph H. (1945-03-17). "Primary Coccidioidomycosis". Journal of the American Medical Association. 127 (11): 624–627. doi:10.1001/jama.1945.02860110004002. ISSN 0002-9955.
  20. A., Buss, William C. Gibson, Thomas E. Gifford, Myrnie. COCCIDIOIDOMYCOSIS OF THE MENINGES. OCLC 679072520.
  21. "California Odyssey: Dust Bowl Migration Archives" (PDF). CSUB. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  22. Mirels, Laurence F.; Deresinski, Stan (2019-02-01). "Coccidioidomycosis: What a long strange trip it's been". Medical Mycology. 57 (Supplement_1): S3–S15. doi:10.1093/mmy/myy123. ISSN 1369-3786. PMC 6347081. PMID 30690606.
  23. "Southwestern Region ... - Founder Region" (PDF). SI-Founder Region. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-01-31. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  24. "BOARD OF SUPERVISORS - COUNTY OF KERN" (PDF). Kern County. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-05-29. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
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