Two decades ago, California had 719 reported cases of Valley Fever, an infectious lung disease caused by the fungus Coccidioides, which lives in soil. Since then, the incidence has climbed steadily, rising to 5,358 in 2016, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
But even those stats don’t tell the full picture, says Antje Lauer, PhD, a professor of microbiology at California State University, Bakersfield, and a leading Valley Fever researcher. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg,” she says. “This is a very misdiagnosed and under-diagnosed disease. The actual number of cases is likely 10 times as high.”
We’re facing, Lauer says, an epidemic, and one that’s likely to keep getting worse…