Fungal disease with no cure spreads in Southwest; each year it kills about 160 and disables thousands

A disease with no cure is spreading in the Southwestern U.S. Each year there are more than 20,000 reported cases of Coccidioidomycosis, "an insidious airborne fungal disease in which microscopic spores in the soil take flight on the wind or even a mild breeze to lodge in the moist habitat of the lungs and, in the most extreme instances, spread to the bones, the skin, the eyes," and sometimes the brain, Patricia Leigh Brown reports for The New York Times. (NYT photos by Monica Almeida: No one knows how 8-year-old Kaden Watson, who spent six months in the hospital, contracted the disease, but the guess is that he was digging in the dirt.)

The disease, commonly called as "cocci," has been labeled “a silent epidemic” by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Brown reports. Most people exposed to the fungus don't get ill, but about 160 people die each year, and thousands face years of disability and surgery. About 9 percent contract pneumonia and 1 percent experience serious complications beyond the lungs.
The numbers are probably larger because some states, including huge Texas, don't require public reporting of deaths from it; and a 2010 survey from New Mexico found 69 percent of clinicians did not consider it in patients with respiratory problems. Hopefully, that number is smaller now. Cocci is most prevalent in California and Arizona.

Effects of the disease are alarming. One man dropped from 220 to 145 in two weeks and had lesions on his face and body. Another, who's been told he has 10 years to live, lives in constant pain, and wakes up retching every day. A study by Arizona's Department of Health Services showed African Americans have a a 25 percent risk of developing complications, while Caucasians' risk is only 6 percent. (Barbara Lundy dropped to 71 lbs. at one point; it has affected her ability to think, remember, walk, or live independently)

Last year 13,000 cases were reported in Arizona, with more cases reported when rainfall is followed by dry spells, Brown reports. Many scientists say the increase is related to changing climate patterns, while state epidemiologist Kenneth K. Komatsu told Brown another factor might be urban sprawl: “digging up rural areas where valley fever is growing in the soil,” he said. (Read more)