Dangerous Airborne Fungus Boosted by California Droughts

Valley fever is an emerging fungal disease in the western United States that most often causes flu-like symptoms, but can also cause dangerous or even deadly complications. By analyzing data on reported cases of Valley fever in California, which have increased dramatically over the last two decades, researchers from University of California San Diego and University of California, Berkeley, have identified seasonal patterns that could help individuals and public health officials better prepare for future surges in Valley fever cases. The findings also have important implications for how the changing climate can exacerbate the threat of infectious diseases. The findings are published in The Lancet Regional Health - Americas.

The researchers collaborated closely with the California Department of Health (CDPH) to analyze all reported Valley fever cases in California from 2000 to 2021. By comparing these to seasonal climate data, they discovered how the disease cycles seasonally across different California counties and identified how these cycles are influenced by drought periods. The researchers found that while most cases occur during the period from September to November, there were differences in seasonal patterns and timing between counties and years.

“Most seasonal infectious diseases show a peak in cases every year, so we were surprised to see that there were certain years during which few or no counties had a seasonal peak in Valley fever cases,” said first author Alexandra Heaney, Ph.D., assistant professor at the UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science. “This made us wonder what was driving these differences in seasonality between years, and based on the timing we observed, we hypothesized that drought might be playing a role.”

Read more at: University of California - San Diego

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