Kern County, California – California is on track for another record-breaking year of Valley fever cases, with more than 3,100 infections already confirmed in 2025 — nearly double the number seen at the same time in 2023. Health experts say climate change, shifting weather patterns, and increased exposure to disturbed soil due to wildfires, droughts, and construction fuel the surge.
Valley fever, or coccidioidomycosis, is caused by inhaling spores of the Coccidioides fungus. The fungus grows in dry, dusty soil throughout the western U.S., particularly in California and Arizona. Once rare outside the Southwest, the disease is increasingly diagnosed in new areas as the climate becomes more arid and soil conditions favorable to the fungus expand eastward.
“There is no question that the number of cases of coccidioidomycosis is enormously higher than before,” said Dr. Royce Johnson, director of the Valley Fever Institute at Kern Medical. “If you want to see me, you’d have to wait until July — and that goes for my colleagues, too.”…