A deadly fungal infection is spreading across the US — and scientists believe climate change is to blame.
Cases of ‘valley fever’ – 10 times more deadly than the flu – have increased 20-fold since the turn of the century.
It is caused by the coccidioides fungus, which releases spores into the air when it is disturbed in the soil. The spores are inhaled by people, mostly construction workers.
The fungus thrives in hot, dry areas, and 97 percent of cases are found in Arizona and California, giving it the name valley fever. But the infection has begun to flourish in other parts of the country, and experts fear it could infect 17 states by 2100.
It comes in the wake of the apocalyptic HBO show, amid growing fears of fungal outbreaks. It shows ‘The Last of Us’. A fungus that turns victims into zombies.
When the soil is disturbed by wind or digging, the fungal spores are blown into the air. When people or animals breathe in the spores, they travel through the respiratory system and reach the lungs.
The infection has been dubbed Valley Fever because 97 percent of cases are in Arizona and California.
While Valley Fever cannot turn the host into a zombie, it can cause severe damage to some patients and kills one in 100 infected people.
Coccidioidomycosis, or cocci, is caused by a fungus that grows in soil in parts of California and the southwestern US.
When the soil is disturbed by wind or digging, the fungal spores are blown into the air.
When people or animals breathe in the mold, it travels through the respiratory system and spreads to the lungs, causing further disease.
Most infections are mild and clear up on their own within a few days or weeks, and the infection cannot be transmitted between humans and animals.
Most people with a mild infection don’t realize it because the symptoms — fatigue, cough, fever, muscle aches and trouble breathing — mimic a respiratory viral infection.
Other symptoms include night sweats, joint pain, and a red rash, usually on the legs, but rarely on the chest, arms, and back.
But up to ten percent of cases become severe and take months to recover from.
In these cases, the disease, known as disseminated coccidioidomycosis, can spread through the bloodstream to other parts of the body, including the brain, skin, and liver. If it damages the membranes and fluids around the brain, it can cause meningitis.
As the fungus spreads around the world, ‘The Last of Us’ follows smuggler Joel (right) and teenage turtle (left) in Boston, Massachusetts.
‘The Last of Us’ is set in a world where a fungus is spreading that turns victims into zombies (pictured).
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 20,000 cases of valley fever were reported in 2019.
He said this may be an underestimation because doctors don’t know enough about it, because valley fever is diagnosed so frequently.
The fungus is endemic in the desert-like parts of the Southwest, with 97 percent of US cases occurring in Arizona and California.
But a Research in the journal GeoHealth Due to climate change, the fungus’ distribution will expand northward to include dry western states such as Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota.
With high temperatures, this means that by 2100 the number of affected states may increase from 12 to 17, the number of cases may increase by 50 percent.
In October last year, the World Health Organization announced for the first time the fungal pathogens that pose a threat to human health.
Dr Hanan Balki, Assistant Director-General for Antimicrobial Resistance at the World Health Organization, said: ‘Emerging from the shadow of the epidemic of bacterial antimicrobial resistance, fungal infections are growing and becoming resistant to treatments, becoming a global public health threat.’
Valley fever is difficult to treat early, and there is no vaccine for it. Patients may take antifungal medications for months and deal with unpleasant side effects such as hair loss and skin rashes.
Scientists have been trying to develop a vaccine for valley fever for decades, but a vaccine that was tested on humans in the 1980s did not work well.
In the past few years, scientists at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson have developed a vaccine that works on dogs, which are susceptible to the disease.
The US Department of Agriculture It could approve the vaccine for dogs as early as 2024, the first in the U.S. to prevent fungal infections in humans and animals.