Thomas Mace, senior scientific adviser to NASA, helps Cal State Bakersfield microbiologist Antje Lauer pour a soil sample into a test tube near Bear Valley Springs.
Credit Shelby Mack / The Californian
Cal State Bakersfield microbiologist Antje Lauer wades through mustard plants in Bear Valley Springs to get to collect a soil sample.
Credit Shelby Mack / The Californian
Cal State Bakersfield microbiologist Antje Lauer wades through mustard plants in Bear Valley Springs to collect a soil sample.
Credit Shelby Mack / The Bakersfield Californian
Samples of soil lie in ice in the trunk of Cal State Bakersfield microbiologist Antje Lauer so they can stay preserved on the trip back to Bakersfield.
By Kellie Schmitt and Rebecca Plevin, Reporting On Health Collaborative
Valley fever feeds on heat.
And as the average temperature ticks up with each passing decade, experts are concerned that the fungus’ footprint and impact are expanding, as evidenced by a rise in cases in areas far outside the hot spots of the Central Valley of California.
Valley fever starts with the simple act of breathing.
The fungal spores, lifted from the dry dirt by the wind, pass through your nostrils or down your throat, so tiny they don’t even trigger a cough. They lodge in your lungs. If you’re fortunate – and most people are – they go no further.
A correctional officer watches from a guard tower seen through the razor wire near Kern Valley State Prison in Delano. The extent of valley fever’s under-diagnosis becomes clear when reviewing cases reported by prisons located in the Central Valley.
Credit John Harte/The Californian
Prisons located in the Central Valley – such as Wasco State Prison, pictured here – have provided clinicians with extensive education on valley fever.
By Kellie Schmitt and Rebecca Plevin, Reporting On Health Collaborative
The soaring nationwide figures for valley fever don’t tell the whole story.
Problems with screening for the disease and tracking it over time mean that thousands of cases go undetected and untreated every year, leading experts to believe the second epidemic is likely worse than documented.
Valley fever often goes unrecognized, especially in places where the disease is not widespread. Doctors aren’t familiar with its wide variety of symptoms. Often, the early symptoms of valley fever are similar to those of pneumonia.
