Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/coccidioidomycosis/)
Even as valley fever cases are sharply increasing in Central California, Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed legislation that would have created programs to inform the public about the little-known respiratory disease.
Estimates of valley fever cases recorded by local, state and federal agencies vary so widely that they call into question the accuracy of the figures released to the public, a Center for Health Journalism Collaborative investigation has found.
California’s current record-setting drought appears to be exacerbating the ongoing epidemic of valley fever, a sometimes debilitating, and even deadly, disease caused by fungal spores embedded in dry dirt.
Top federal health officials are traveling to Bakersfield this week to hear the stories of valley fever survivors and discuss how to bring greater awareness of and funding for the sometimes crippling disease.
Officials say they need clarification before they can implement a federal receiver’s order to move some inmates from the threat of the disease.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed in a new research article that cases of the fungal disease rose at stunning rates.
A lack of awareness and timely testing for this potentially deadly disease has had serious consequences for some.
More people are dying from valley fever than previously thought. Elderly and immunosuppressed people are most at risk.
Valley fever, a disease people contract from breathing fungal spores contained in soil, has reached epidemic proportions in parts of California. Yet it is so little known and misunderstood that people have died without ever having known they had it.