SALINAS, CA − A lethal fungus has quietly spread in the soil across the West. Now, it’s threatening areas well beyond the dusty deserts and valleys where it likely originated.
Valley fever, a disease caused by the fungus Cocciodioides, was once concentrated in the American Southwest. In an era of increasingly extreme weather, the disease is thriving in areas once considered cool and temperate.
Ahead of the disease’s peak fall and winter seasons, health authorities are scrambling to raise awareness about its easily missed signs and symptoms before the spread worsens.
“I’m not sure we can prevent people from getting valley fever,” said Christie Michie, assistant director of public health in California's Monterey County, a cool coastal agricultural region that once had just a couple of dozen cases a year but now averages hundreds. “It’s very difficult to avoid dust in our environment. But what we don’t want is people get really sick with valley fever.”
