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Valley fever is on the rise in San Mateo County
Frequent switches between drought, rainy conditions could be to blame
Daily Journal staff report 8 hrs ago
Cases of valley fever, a respiratory infection caused by a fungus found in soils, have experienced an uptick in San Mateo County recently, a trend some experts warn could be exacerbated by construction and climate change, health officials said in a recent communicable disease report.
“The switch between dry conditions during a drought and rainy winters following a drought creates the right conditions for the fungus to thrive,” read the county’s Communicable Diseases Quarterly Report for the first quarter of 2023 published Thursday.
Coccidioidomycosis, the scientific name for valley fever, is a fungus found in drier parts of the nation including southern Arizona, central California, southwestern New Mexico, and west Texas, that causes about 20,000 infections a year, according to the county’s report.
Of those infections, about 97% come from Arizona and California with highest infection rates originating in the Central Valley, according to the report. About 1,000 Californians are hospitalized and 80 die due to the infection annually, the report read. But officials warn that cases are beginning to increase in other parts of the state, specifically the Northern San Joaquin Valley and coastal parts of Southern California.
Cases statewide tripled between 2014 and 2018 and grew from fewer than 1,000 cases in 2000 to more than 9,000 cases in 2019, the report read. San Mateo County has also seen cases more than triple from last year’s report from three reported cases to 11...
Valley fever is on the rise in San Mateo County
Frequent switches between drought, rainy conditions could be to blame
Daily Journal staff report 8 hrs ago
Cases of valley fever, a respiratory infection caused by a fungus found in soils, have experienced an uptick in San Mateo County recently, a trend some experts warn could be exacerbated by construction and climate change, health officials said in a recent communicable disease report.
“The switch between dry conditions during a drought and rainy winters following a drought creates the right conditions for the fungus to thrive,” read the county’s Communicable Diseases Quarterly Report for the first quarter of 2023 published Thursday.
Coccidioidomycosis, the scientific name for valley fever, is a fungus found in drier parts of the nation including southern Arizona, central California, southwestern New Mexico, and west Texas, that causes about 20,000 infections a year, according to the county’s report.
Of those infections, about 97% come from Arizona and California with highest infection rates originating in the Central Valley, according to the report. About 1,000 Californians are hospitalized and 80 die due to the infection annually, the report read. But officials warn that cases are beginning to increase in other parts of the state, specifically the Northern San Joaquin Valley and coastal parts of Southern California.
Cases statewide tripled between 2014 and 2018 and grew from fewer than 1,000 cases in 2000 to more than 9,000 cases in 2019, the report read. San Mateo County has also seen cases more than triple from last year’s report from three reported cases to 11...