United States: In April 2024, Brynn Carrigan began noticing regular headaches. Basically, within two weeks, she was unable to function properly.
The vomiting caused her to feel even more intense pain in her head. Most of her time was spent in bed with tightly drawn covers, keeping any light from coming in.
“I went from training for a marathon, raising two teenagers, and having a job to essentially being bedridden,” as stated Carrigan, 41, of Bakersfield, California, who works for Kern County Public Health.
Even the clock on her microwave bothered her far too much. Things got worse for her again, and the doctors were still struggling to find answers until her third time in the hospital, when a doctor asked if she had problems with her breathing before the headaches began, NBC News reported.
Carrigan was experiencing a cough and cold about a month before the headaches started, and her cough lasted far longer than usual, while the rash appeared on her thighs a week after she grew sick.
Valley Fever Brain Infections Surge
The lab discovered that Carrigan had coccidioidal meningitis, which is a rare form of meningitis caused by Valley fever.
People get valley fever or coccidioidomycosis by breathing in fungi called coccidioides, which are found only in the dry, warm areas of the southwestern US.
Climate Change Drives the Spread
Because of climate change, the soil is drying out farther toward the east, and this is helping the fungi spread.
Serious cases of valley fever have been reported in regions where it is not usually found, and the number of cases is rising in the Western US. California is approaching Arizona’s yearly number of drownings.
Between 2000 and 2016, the number of California cases each year ranged from 1,500 to 5,500. Over the six years from 2017 to 2023, cases increased from 7,700 to 9,000 each year, NBC News reported.
Latest reports for 2024 suggest there will be 12,600 cases, which is the most the state has ever had and more than 3,000 cases than what was seen in 2023.