Valley Fever Outbreak: Dangerous Fungal Infection Linked To California Music Festival Grows

Topline

After a spike in cases connected to a local music festival, California health officials are bracing for a rise in valley fever cases and have issued a warning about the potentially fatal fungal infection. This alert could spread throughout the United States in the future as climate change intensifies the hot, dry conditions that the fungus prefers.

Key Facts

• A notification from the California Department of Public Health states that at least 19 individuals who were either employees or attendees of the Lightning in a Bottle music festival have been diagnosed with valley fever.
• The health authorities said that eight of them had been admitted to hospitals and issued a warning that more cases might surface among the over 20,000 attendees of the open-air festival held at Buena Vista Lake in Kern County from May 22 to May 27.
• Valley fever, sometimes referred to as coccidioidomycosis or simply “cocci” (pronounced “cock-see”), is a lung infection brought on by inhaling the spores of the soil-dwelling fungus Coccidioides, which is found in parts of Washington, Mexico, and Central America in addition to the southwestern states of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Texas.
• In addition to weather events like dust storms, activities that disturb soil and dust, such as gardening, construction, or digging, increase the risk of disturbing and inhaling spores. Of those infected, about 40% will experience symptoms of respiratory illness and pneumonia, such as fever, coughing, and fatigue, one to three weeks after inhalation.
• After several weeks or months of illness, the majority of people with valley fever recover without the need for medication. However, between 5% and 10% of cases result in serious or long-term lung problems, and 1% of cases cause the infection to spread to other parts of the body, such as the skin, bones, joints, and brain. In these cases, the infection can be fatal if antifungal drugs are not taken care of.
• Valley fever cases typically peak in late summer and autumn when winds can disturb dry soil. Tomás Aragón, director of the California Department of Public Health and the state’s public health officer, stated that officials are “preparing for another possible increase in valley fever cases in the coming months” and advised anyone experiencing “lingering cough and fatigue” to see a doctor, “especially if you’ve been outdoors in dusty air in the Central Valley or Central Coast regions.”

Big Number

10,000. According to the CDC, it is roughly the number of cases of Valley fever that occur in the United States each year. Two states account for almost all cases: Arizona, where about 70% of infections are documented, and California, which accounts for the remaining 30%.

What To Watch For

In the last 20 years, the number of cases of valley fever has quadrupled in the US. Though more studies are required to conclusively establish this connection, experts believe that human-caused climate change is most likely to be the culprit. This is due to a number of factors, chief among them being the fact that when temperatures rise and regions get drier, Coccidioides fungi are able to grow more readily in the United States.

This increases the fungus’s range as it spreads into new, previously uninhabitable places. Scientists believe the fungus may eventually move east to the Great Plains and north to Canada, putting more people and areas at danger of valley fever. Its distribution has significantly grown in recent years. The heated, dry circumstances that the fungi prefer are brought about by climate change, and the probability of droughts and other extreme weather events rising increases the possibility that the mushrooms will be whipped into the air and inhaled. We are susceptible to the growth of resistant forms of fungi because there is no vaccine for valley fever or any other fungal disease, and no new treatments have been licensed in decades.

Surprising Fact

Every year, 1.5 million people die from fungal diseases—a mortality toll more than double that of serious illnesses like HIV, malaria, and breast cancer, and on par with major killers like tuberculosis. According to research, they have an annual impact of over a billion people worldwide and are a significant cause of illness and impairment.

Even though the burden is substantial, fungal illnesses are generally disregarded from the standpoint of public health, receive little funding and attention from health organisations, and few, if any, novel medications have been produced in recent decades to address the problem. Numerous fungal illnesses can be challenging, if not impossible, to identify, treat, and eradicate from the environment. Treatment for infections, which disproportionately affect those with weakened immune systems or other medical issues, can take months, and medications that do exist may have detrimental side effects or develop antibiotic-like resistance.