Because the fungus that causes the disease spreads easily in hot, arid conditions, the number of cases will grow, UC Berkeley study says
Jaime Gonzalez, 48, stands in a Modesto walnut orchard. In 2008, he was infected with Valley fever as he was walking out of a hospital after a monthlong stay to treat a blood clot. Despite his chronic pain and fatigue, Gonzales regularly visits groups of migrant workers to explain the risk of the fungal disease.
But even among those groups, the disease is often unknown. Gonzalez’s father, a farmer, had never heard of the disease until his son, then a judicial assistant, contracted it in 2008. Roughly 40% of patients develop symptoms, which usually persist for weeks or months before fading. These can include fever, cough, fatigue, sweats, and joint or muscle pain.
The climate crisis has made hot, arid conditions more widespread. Though still most prevalent in a region that stretches from Arizona to the San Joaquin Valley, cases started popping up in southeast Washington state in 2010. Research indicates that by the turn of the next century, the disease could cross the Canadian border and spread east to the Dakotas.
The fungus’s need for both drought and moisture explains why some coastal counties report the sharpest case spikes. In parched inland soils, the fungus releases spores easily but grows slowly. California’s coast, meanwhile, offers sufficient soil moisture — and now, because of climate change, more frequent dry heat as well.
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