Already, Valley fever costs about $1.5 billion per year in Arizona and California, and experts anticipate the fungus that causes the illness will widen its reach in the country over the next few decades, The Washington Post reported Nov. 13.
The CDC estimates there may be more than 500,000 cases of infections caused by Coccidioides — a flesh-eating fungus — every year in the U.S. Valley fever, or coccidioidomycosis, is thought to be endemic in the Southwestern U.S., with about 97% of cases confirmed in Arizona and California. However, more cases have popped up outside of these regions, and researchers anticipate warming temperatures will push the disease east by the end of the century, making it endemic in regions such as the Great Plains.
There is not yet definitive evidence to link higher temperatures to rising cases of Valley fever, though the connection seems obvious for many clinicians on the front lines treating the disease.
"I cannot think of any other infection that is so closely entwined with climate change," Rasha Kuran, MD, associate medical director of the Valley Fever Institute at the University of California Los Angeles, told the Post.
Already, the disease is costly in the two states where it is most prevalent. In California, more than 1,000 people are hospitalized with Valley fever every year. This year, experts predict the state could see more than 10,000 cases.
Cocci lives in dry, hot soil and can be contracted when people breathe in microscopic fungal spores from the air. Symptoms include fever, cough, shortness of breath and rash and typically develop between one and three weeks after breathing in the spores. More than half of people feel no symptoms and may recover on their own. For those who do not, the disease can be severe.
No vaccine exists for the infection, though agencies are ramping up efforts to encourage the development of one.