Thousands of Americans have been struck down by incurable fungus on the West Coast dubbed a ‘new epidemic’.
Valley Fever – which got its name because a majority of cases are found in Arizona and California – is a deadly lung infection that kills one in 100 people that contract it.
This year, the numbers have spiked to 9,826 in California, which is a 46 percent increase from last year.
Meanwhile, there have been 12,368 reported cases of Valley Fever in Arizona, up from 10,990 cases in 2023, marking an uptick of more than 11 percent.
Experts are now frantically trying to design a human vaccine for the fungus to help stop its spread.
The University of Arizona Valley Fever Center for Excellence recently secured $33 million from the National Institute of Health to pursue a vaccine.
Its director, Dr John Galgiani, helped develop one for dogs which is still undergoing licensing for commercial marketing. But it is hoped the jab could translate to humans.
‘I’ve been thinking about a human vaccine all along but taking this through the dog is really a very useful step to show proof of the concept, making the idea of taking it to humans that much more attractive,’ Mr Galgiani said.
Valley Fever is caused by the fungus coccidioides, which releases spores into the air when soil is disturbed that are then inhaled by people.
There is no person-to-person transmission.
The disease, for which there is currently no preventative vaccine, can often be missed by doctors or misdiagnosed as pneumonia as it presents similar symptoms such as fatigue, cough, fever, aching muscles and breathlessness.
Other symptoms include night sweats, joint aches and a red rash, usually on the legs but occasionally on the chest, arms and back.
But up to 10 percent of infections become severe and take months to recover from.
In these cases, known as disseminated coccidioidomycosis, the disease can spread through the bloodstream to other parts of the body, including the brain, skin and liver.
If it infects the membranes and fluid around the brain it can cause life-threatening meningitis.
On average, there were approximately 200 coccidioidomycosis-associated deaths each year from 1999 to 2021.
There is no proven treatment for Valley Fever and patients are usually prescribed rest and given therapies to manage symptoms.
Doctors may prescribe antifungal medications, but there is no evidence from clinical trials that show these treatments are effective – and antifungal drugs come with the potential for serious side effects.
In 1996, the Valley Fever Center for Excellence at the University of Arizona, was established in order to address the problems caused by the coccidioides fungus.
Two-thirds of all Valley Fever infections in the US occur in Arizona, mostly in the urban areas surrounding Phoenix and Tucson.
The number of Valley Fever cases peaked for the first time in a decade in 2021.
The 20,970 recorded instances were the most on record for a single year since the last peak in 2011.
Instances declined in 2022 but picked back up last year, and experts are concerned over an expected surge of the fungus in the coming decades.
The CDC estimates Valley Fever could infect more than half a million Americans each year in the future.
The agency said that due to rising temperatures across the globe, the endemic region of the disease will spread north to include dry western areas.
Other experts fear that it could be endemic in 17 states by 2100.
