Myrnie Gifford
Myrnie Ade Gifford | |
---|---|
![]() fair use image | |
Born | 1892 |
Died | 1966 |
Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley Stanford University Mount Holyoke College |
Known for | Coccidioidomycosis identification |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | San Francisco General Hospital |
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.
Early life and education
[edit]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
[edit]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 who had 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
[edit]- ^ "Message Boards". www.ancestry.com. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- ^ a b "RECIPIENTS OF CERTIFICATES IN PUBLIC HEALTH" (PDF). Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- ^ a b c d csubedocent (2015-02-20). "Dr. Myrnie Gifford". CSUB Library Archives eDocent. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- ^ "The Stanford Daily 8 June 1920 — The Stanford Daily". stanforddailyarchive.com. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- ^ "The American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) from the American Public Health Association (APHA) publications". American Journal of Public Health and the Nation's Health. 56 (6): 999–XXXIX. 1966. doi:10.2105/ajph.56.6.999.
- ^ a b "Myrnie Ada Gifford 1915". www.mtholyoke.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- ^ "THE BARRE DAILY TIMES" (PDF). THE BARRE DAILY TIMES. 1919-07-01.
- ^ Ainsworth, G. C. (2002-11-07). Introduction to the History of Medical and Veterinary Mycology. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521524551.
- ^ "The 1930s Migration to the Southern San Joaquin Valley" (PDF). Cal State. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "History of Valley Fever | Kern County Valley Fever". Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- ^ a b "Spores, Dust and Valley Fever" (PDF). British Society for Mycopathology. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 26, 2020. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "True Pathogenic Fungi & Opportunistic Fungi Mycoses". www.clt.astate.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b "Bakersfield Californian Archives, Dec 31, 1957, p. 12". newspaperarchive.com. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b A., Buss, William C. Gibson, Thomas E. Gifford, Myrnie. COCCIDIOIDOMYCOSIS OF THE MENINGES. OCLC 679072520.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "California Odyssey: Dust Bowl Migration Archives" (PDF). CSUB. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Southwestern Region ... - Founder Region" (PDF). SI-Founder Region. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-01-31. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- ^ "BOARD OF SUPERVISORS - COUNTY OF KERN" (PDF). Kern County. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-05-29. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- American medical academics
- American public health doctors
- Stanford University alumni
- University of California, Berkeley alumni
- Johns Hopkins University alumni
- 1892 births
- 1966 deaths
- 20th-century American physicians
- 20th-century American women physicians
- Mount Holyoke College alumni
- American women public health doctors