In #Arizona, a fight against a deadly #fungus is under threat from #Trump’s health policies
What one doctor’s quest to stop #ValleyFever says about America’s preparedness for climate-driven disease.
by Zoya Teirstein, October 2, 2025
Excerpt: "Valley fever is endemic to southern #WashingtonState, #Oregon, #California, #Nevada, #Utah, #NewMexico, #Texas, and parts of #CentralAmerica and #SouthAmerica, but nowhere are cases of the disease more common than in Arizona. After Arizona started mandatory laboratory reporting for valley fever in 1997, registered cases ticked up and down. But the number began trending upward dramatically in 2016. Then, in 2024, cases in the state exploded, hitting their second-highest total ever. More than 15,000 infections were reported — a 37 percent increase over 2023. California, which runs just behind Arizona in its annual valley fever caseload, registered a record-breaking 12,637 cases in 2024, representing a 39 percent increase over the previous year, which had already smashed a record set in 2019.
"Some portion of the rise in reported cases represents growing awareness among physicians and an associated surge in testing. The pace of new construction in #UntouchedAreas also plays a role.
"But the recent increase in cases has been so dramatic, Galgiani and other researchers across the West who study the fungus think another factor may be driving the trend: #supersoaker winter #monsoons followed by scorching summer #heat and #drought, a cycle made more intense by #ClimateChange.
"Because warmer air holds more moisture, monsoons and other major rainfall events pull in larger quantities of water vapor and produce heavier downpours as the planet warms. This physical fact has fueled a spate of #MonsterFloods across the U.S. and around the world in recent years. But the same warmth can conversely lead to drought by making the atmosphere 'thirstier,' or capable of absorbing more water from the land’s surface. Both conditions facilitate the spread of valley fever — the wetter conditions by encouraging growth of the #spores, and the drier by facilitating desiccation and soil disturbance.
" 'The main driver for us is certainly this very clear association for #coccidioides between heavy precipitation cycles followed by drought,' said George Thompson, a professor of medicine at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine who specializes in #FungalDiseases.
"And it’s not just valley fever that may increase its spread thanks to climate change. Peer reviewed research shows that fungal threats of all kinds are poised to emerge and thrive in a warming world."
https://grist.org/health/valley-fever-arizona-fungus-climate-change/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
#ExtremeWeather #ClimateCrisis #Disease
