YUMA — Desert dwellers are at high risk of becoming infected with a fungus which thrives in the hot and arid Southwest.
The fungus (Coccidioidomycosis) causes valley fever.
According to the Department of Health Services, valley fever represents 59 percent of the total infectious diseases reported in Arizona this year.
The fungus is found in soil and lives just inches to a few feet beneath the surface.
University of Arizona valley fever specialist Dr. John Galgiani said about 100,000 valley fever infections occur in Arizona.
Galgiani said about two thirds of people that get infected have either no illness or an illness so mild that they don't bother to go to a doctor.
The other third have an illness that is typically described as a pneumonia.
ljthornton posted at 7:56 am on Tue, Jul 6, 2010.
This story is dangerously incomplete. Valley Fever will not respond to ordinary treatment for pneumonia, for example, so a misdiagnosis by either patient or doctor can in extreme cases be deadly.
RollerCam posted at 8:36 am on Tue, Jul 6, 2010.
I personally know two people that have contracted Valley Fever.
They say that they've never fully recovered from it, even decades later.