Valley Fever: A Terror In The Body, A ‘Wimp’ In The Soil

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The following is an excerpt of a segment about the fungal disease valley fever from the April 24, 2020 episode of the NPR show Science Friday . Read the rest of the piece here , and hear the full Science Friday segment including an interview with FM89’s Kerry Klein here . The life of the Valley Fever fungus, and the root of the problem, begins beneath our feet. There are currently two known species of Coccidioides, and both cause disease: Coccidioides immitis , is found in California and in Washington state, and Coccidioides posadasii, which is found all over the western part of North America and parts of Central and South America. Both Cocci species tend to grow in the top layers of the earth, and like alkaline, salty soil—like the hard packed clay and sandy loams that makes up much of the American Southwest. “The [Valley Fever] hot spots are in what we call the former Bakersfield deserts in the southwest,” says Antje Lauer , a microbial ecologist at California State University,
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