Regarding the guest editorial by Rep. David Schweikert: Valley Fever Awareness.

Since May of this year we have been trying to contact the co-chairs of the Valley Fever Task Force, Representatives McCarthy and Schweikert, regarding their interest in finding cures, prevention and treatment options for Valley Fever.

We also notified them in writing that since the beginning of all the publicity of Valley Fever that the price of the generic drug fluconazole had increased ten-fold and that there was a need to try and create some options for people and their pets immediately.

We believe based on our initial study of Valley Fever in canines in 2008 and the ensuing five years of data that we have gathered that targeted nutritional supplements such as Desert Defense could have a role in impacting this multi-faceted disease in both pets and people.

Our proposal is that these supplements could be approved and used as a step before drugs or in combination with drugs. They would be tested in a clinical trial but not in the same extensive and expensive format as drugs.

What we are asking is to think outside of the box. People that developed life threatening forms of clostridial infections from antibiotic use had no options until fecal transplants were pioneered. This was considered the last line of treatment – it’s now considered the first. The FDA tried to step in and regulate but has now backed off.

Thus far there has been little response from the Task Force.