Category: Fungal Infection
Drought fueling spread of fungus that’s making people sick across California: Study
The HIll Climate changed-induced drought conditions have been driving the dispersal of a dangerous airborne fungus across California in recent years, a new study has found. Cases of the flu-like disease coccidioidomycosis — also known as “Valley fever” — have risen dramatically over the past two decades, tripling from 2014 to 2018 and again from […]
Sep 3, 2024
Valley Fever in California: Symptoms, Protecting Yourself and Why Cases Are Way Up
KQED Cases of valley fever — a lung infection that can cause severe sickness in some people — are rising across California. And state health officials said they’re seeing an increasing number of cases of the disease reported outside the Central Valley and Central Coast areas where valley fever is traditionally most common — including cases in Bay Area […]
Aug 27, 2024
A ‘Critical Pathogen’: The Rise of Drug-Resistant Fungal Diseases
Johns Hopkins Until recently, most fungal infections did not pose a significant threat to human health. Our advanced immune system and hot body temperature created an inhospitable environment for fungi, which mostly infected hospitalized patients or those taking immunosuppressive medication. But over the past 10 years, the fungus Candida auris has emerged independently on three continents, suggesting […]
Aug 27, 2024
14 people got Valley fever after a California music festival, highlighting the fungus’ growing threat
NBC News An outbreak of Valley fever among attendees and workers at an outdoor music festival in California’s Central Valley highlights the fungal infection’s mounting threat. Fourteen people who traveled to attend or work at the Lightning in a Bottle Festival in Bakersfield in May have tested positive for Valley fever and developed symptoms, the California Department […]
Aug 13, 2024
Pan-drug resistance and hypervirulence in a human fungal pathogen are enabled by mutagenesis induced by mammalian body temperature
NIH The continuing emergence of invasive fungal pathogens poses an increasing threat to public health. Here, through the China Hospital Invasive Fungal Surveillance Net programme, we identified two independent cases of human infection with a previously undescribed invasive fungal pathogen, Rhodosporidiobolus fluvialis, from a genus in which many species are highly resistant to fluconazole and […]
Aug 7, 2024
Five CA music festival attendees diagnosed with Valley fever
KRON News The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is urging people who attended the Lighting in a Bottle festival to see a healthcare provider if they are experiencing respiratory symptoms after five attendees were diagnosed with Valley fever, officials said. State officials say over 20,000 people attended the festival in Buena Vista Lake, and five have […]
Jul 30, 2024
Never-before-seen fungus that mutates at ‘hyper’ speed is discovered in China as two patients die with it
Daily Mail A never-before-seen fungus that can infect humans has been detected in China. Two men, in their 60s and 80s, have already died while infected with the pathogen, called R. fluvialis, though it’s unclear if the fungus contributed to their deaths. Researchers at Nanjing Medical Center who made the discovery fear others may also have contracted […]
Jul 23, 2024
There’s a New Fungus in Town and It Won’t Be the Last
MedPageToday The arrival of C. auris in Washington is a harbinger of health systems addled by climate change. For healthcare systems in the Pacific Northwest, the recent outbreaks of Candida auris (C. auris) serve as a wake-up call. The implications of the arrival of this resilient and drug-resistant fungal pathogen are profound, particularly for our most vulnerable patients who are […]
Mar 26, 2024
Washington state experiencing 1st known outbreak of potentially deadly fungus: Health officials
ABC News Washington state is experiencing its first known outbreak of a potentially deadly fungus, according to public health officials. Four patients in the last month have tested positive for Candida auris, or C. auris, Public Health – Seattle & King County said in a release. The first case occurred in a patient who had recently been […]
Feb 6, 2024
Humans Can No Longer Ignore the Threat of Fungi
The Atlantic Back at the turn of the 21st century, valley fever was an obscure fungal disease in the United States, with fewer than 3,000 reported cases a year, mostly in California and Arizona. Two decades later, cases of valley fever have exploded, increasing roughly sevenfold by 2019. And valley fever isn’t alone. Fungal diseases […]
Oct 4, 2023