Any person who breathes in air laced with Cocci fungal spores is at risk of developing Valley Fever, and dry conditions–the kind that climate change is making more common–increase that risk. (From 2021)
In most states where the disease is endemic, public health departments have been slow to grasp and advertise the breadth and potential impact of the illness, experts say, and the federal government could be doing more to fund research into a cure or vaccine for the infection. To date, there’s only been one multi-center, prospective comparative trial for the treatment of valley fever. And, more troubling, researchers haven’t pinned down exactly what’s behind the rise in cases or how to stop it.
Jesse thinks the cause of his valley fever infection is obvious. “I clearly see a correlation between the fires and valley fever,” he told Grist. But scientists aren’t exactly sure what environmental factors drive, Ventura County health officer Robert Levin cast doubt on the connection betweenand wildfires.
“The big issue is drought, it’s dryness,” Julie Parsonnet, a specialist in adult infectious diseases at Stanford University, told Grist. “And after a period of rain it’s even worse.” Parsonnet sees the real-world consequences of that dry-wet cycle at Stanford, where she works at a referral center that sees patients with even worse valley fever than Jesse had—the really bad cases. “We see really terrible disease with the fungus affecting their brains and their bones,” she said.
But part of the blame also lies with states and the way their public health departments prioritize diseases. Laurence Mirels, an infectious disease specialist in San Jose, California, who is affiliated with the California Institute for Medical Research, said that valley fever has long languished behind HIV, West Nile virus, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, and other communicable or vector-borne diseases in states’ list of public health priorities.
“I think it’ll probably take expanding numbers to get people’s attention to make this a higher priority among everything else that needs attention,” Galgiani said.
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