Thousands are being struck by an incurable fungus on the West Coast called “new American epidemic.”

Thousands of Americans on the West Coast have been struck by an incurable fungus called a “new epidemic.”

Valley Fever – which gets its name from the fact that most cases occur in Arizona and California – is a fatal lung infection that kills one in every hundred people who become infected with it.

This year, California’s numbers have risen to 9,826, which is a 46 percent increase over last year.

Meanwhile, 12,368 cases of Valley Fever have been reported in Arizona, up from 10,990 cases in 2023, marking an increase of more than 11 percent.

Experts are now frantically trying to design a human vaccine against the fungus to help stop its spread.

The University of Arizona’s Valley Fever Center for Excellence recently secured $33 million from the National Institute of Health to develop a vaccine.

Its director, Dr. John Galgiani, helped develop it for dogs, which still requires a commercial marketing license. But it is hoped that the jab can translate to humans.

“I’ve been thinking about a human vaccine all along, but delivering this through the dog is really a very useful step in showing proof of concept, making the idea of ​​bringing it to humans much more attractive,” said the Mr Galgiani.

Valley Fever is caused by the fungus coccidioides, which when soil is disturbed releases spores into the air that are then inhaled by humans.

There is no transmission from person to person.

The disease, for which there is currently no preventive vaccine, can often be overlooked or misdiagnosed by doctors as pneumonia because it presents with similar symptoms such as fatigue, coughing, fever, muscle aches and shortness of breath.

Other symptoms include night sweats, joint pain and a red rash, usually on the legs, but occasionally on the chest, arms and back.

But up to 10 percent of infections become serious and recovery takes months.

In these cases, known as disseminated coccidioidomycosis, the disease can spread through the bloodstream to other parts of the body, including the brain, skin and liver.

If it infects the membranes and fluid around the brain, it can cause life-threatening meningitis.

Between 1999 and 2021, there were an average of approximately 200 deaths annually due to coccidioidomycosis.

There is no proven treatment for valley fever and patients are usually prescribed rest and therapies to control symptoms.

Doctors may prescribe antifungal medications, but there is no evidence from clinical trials that these treatments are effective — and antifungal medications can cause serious side effects.

In 1996, the Valley Fever Center for Excellence at the University of Arizona was founded to address the problems caused by the coccidioides fungus.

Two-thirds of all Valley Fever infections in the U.S. occur in Arizona, especially in the urban areas around Phoenix and Tucson.

The fungal spores are thrown into the air when the soil is disturbed by wind or digging. When people or animals inhale the spores, they travel through the airways to the lungs where they reproduce

The infection was named Valley Fever because 97 percent of cases occur in Arizona and California

The number of valley fever cases peaked in 2021 for the first time in ten years.

The 20,970 recorded cases were the highest in a single year since the last peak in 2011.

Cases fell in 2022 but picked up again last year, and experts are concerned about an expected increase in the fungus in the coming decades.

The CDC estimates that Valley Fever could infect more than half a million Americans annually in the future.

The agency said that due to rising temperatures around the world, the endemic area of ​​the disease will spread northwards and include the arid western areas.

Other experts fear the disease could be endemic in 17 states by 2100.