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All That Rain Is Driving Up Cases of a Deadly Fungal Disease in California
Valley fever is thriving as California swings widely between drought and flooding.
If the immune system can’t fight off the Coccidioides spores, the illness can move past its initial phase and become a chronic condition that produces a severe cough, chest pain, weight loss, pneumonia, and nodules in the lungs. Climate change, researchers hypothesize, is supercharging valley fever, and increasingly intense atmospheric rivers—responsible for roughly 50 percent of the West Coast’s annual water supply—are creating ideal conditions for the spores to spread. She worries that as developers build more infrastructure and expand into virgin areas of the state, and as climate change creates ever more convenient conditions for Coccidioides, valley fever will pose an increasingly profound threat to public health.
Or read this on Wired
