SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A fungus that can cause a potentially fatal illness called valley fever has been found for the first time in the soil of Washington, officials at Washington State University said Monday.
When the fungus, which is normally found in semi-arid soils of the Southwest, becomes airborne, it can lead to valley fever. It releases tiny spores that get inhaled and lodged in the lungs of humans and certain animals, especially dogs.
In the most severe form of the illness, the spores escape from the lungs and cycle through the bloodstream, setting up infections that destroy bones, cause skin abscesses and inflame the brain. The federal Centers for Disease Control estimated it kills 160 people annually.
Three unrelated cases — in Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla counties — were diagnosed in eastern Washington in 2010-11. Soil samples taken recently from the same vicinity tested positive for the fungus, proving it can survive in the area, scientists said.
"Do I think it just showed up and made three people sick? No. I think it has probably been in the soil for some time," said Dr. Tom Chiller of the CDC in Atlanta, which collaborated with the state in its investigation.
Valley fever is most prevalent in parts of Arizona and the San Joaquin Valley of central California.
Because the three people who got sick in Washington had not traveled there, scientists have become "quite certain ... the fungus has moved beyond its normal geographical range," Chiller said in a press release.
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