Can you get valley fever again

However, in extremely rare instances, a wound infection with Coccidioides can spread Valley fever to someone else, 8 or the infection can be spread through an organ transplant with an infected organ. The risk of getting Valley fever is low when traveling to an area where Coccidioides lives in the environment, such as the southwestern United States, Mexico, or Central or South America.

Your risk for infection could increase if you will be in a very dusty setting, but even then the risk is still low. If you have questions about your risk of getting Valley fever while traveling, talk to your healthcare provider. Usually not. Some people can have the infection come back again a relapse after getting better the first time, but this is very rare. Pets, particularly dogs, can get valley fever, but it is not contagious between animals and people.

Valley fever in dogs is similar to valley fever in humans. Dogs that do develop symptoms often have symptoms that include coughing, lack of energy, and weight loss. Recommendations about what to do in the event of a laboratory exposure external icon have been published. If you develop symptoms of Valley fever, contact your healthcare provider. People who live in these areas can try to avoid spending time in dusty places as much as possible.

People who are at risk for severe Valley fever such as people who have weakened immune systems, pregnant women, people who have diabetes, or people who are Black or Filipino may be able to lower their chances of developing the infection by trying to avoid breathing in the fungal spores. She brushed it off as a cold at first, but then her lungs began to rattle and her fever began to climb.

Then she became unusually tired. I didn't know what it was. The most common symptom of valley fever is exhaustion. Many people who get infected have symptoms similar to the flu—a mild cough, a low fever. Usually, these people can fight off the infection on their own. They may not even realize they were sick with the fungus.

The cobweb-like shadows in this chest X-ray are signs of pulmonary fibrosis from valley fever. Since these shadows also resemble those seen in other lung diseases, including tuberculosis or lung cancer, a chest X-ray needs to be coupled with other testing, as well as possible tissue biopsy. The amount of scarring found in the X-ray can show the severity of the fungal infection. My mother was able to fully recover after doctors identified she had valley fever, but others, like Charles, may get treated for the wrong disease.

Valley fever is a commonly misdiagnosed illness because many symptoms are similar to the flu and pneumonia—an issue we've also been seeing with COVID It can even be mistaken for lung cancer, as the fungus can create nodules and scarring in the tissue, which look similar to tumors in a chest X-ray.

But in some severe cases, the fungus can leave the lungs and spread to other parts of the body. It can invade the skin, bones, nervous system, and even the brain —turning into disseminated disease.

Without proper antifungal treatment, the disease can last a lifetime, or even be deadly. People with severe valley fever can lose their ability to work. Some lose limbs. Others lose their homes to pay medical bills. But, it is more common among immunocompromised patients, women in late stage pregnancy, and African Americans, Filipinos , and Native Americans , according to the CDC and public health departments.

The many ways the fungus can make people sick has long puzzled scientists studying the disease. Why does the fungus cause a cough in some people, but a deadly meningitis in others?

Can we manipulate it? Researchers like Hoyer are racing to understand the fungus better—especially as the pathogen is moving north and east. A scanning electron microscope image of the spherules of Coccidioides posadasii , one of the species of fungus that causes valley fever.

The species is named after Argentinian physician Alejandro Posadas who was the first to identify the disease in a year-old cavalryman in San Juan in Credit: Bridget Barker. Many fungi can change their structure under certain conditions, an ability known as dimorphism, explains Anita Sil at UCSF. Cocci belongs to a group of fungal pathogens called thermal dimorphs, which change their cell shape in response to temperature.

It morphs into a large capsule, called a spherule, that is filled with spores. These changes mean the fungus is ready to invade. Normally, a variety of immune cells each have different jobs. Cells on the defensive line are watchdogs for pathogens and signal the alarm when they enter the body. Some immune cells are like generals, in charge of directing and turning on immune responses.

Others are like soldiers, battling against specific intruders. But these fungal spherules are big, making them difficult to swallow. If not stopped, the spherules can pop like an overfilled balloon, unleashing more of the fungus to migrate through the body. This photomicrograph reveals the spherules of one of the species of valley fever fungus, Coccidioides immitis.

Within these spherules, you can see the spores. Antifungal medication is the only treatment doctors know can quell valley fever. It works best if the disease is caught early. Years before Charles got sick, his middle son had valley fever in His doctor quickly diagnosed and treated him, tipped off by the strange lesions growing on his legs—a symptom that Charles himself did not develop.

His son made a full recovery after a year of antifungal medication. But some people say that the antifungals are as bad as the disease itself, if not worse. Since the biology of fungi is very similar to the biology of our cells, antifungal medication can also cause damage while attacking the invader, says Katrina Hoyer at UC Merced. It leads to a cache of brutal side effects—constant dry skin, nausea, abdominal pain.

They only inhibit the growth of the fungus enough for your immune system to try to kill it. He must continue to take antifungal medication to control its growth. He is prescribed one of the more common antifungal drugs, fluconazole Diflucan. He points to a swollen crack on his lower lip, a result of constant dry skin and dehydration from the medication. But I have to take it if I want to live.

In the worst cases, the fungus proves near impossible to control. She would make a thing called a sock-it-to-me cake, pineapple-upside-down cake, pound cake.

But a few years after graduating college, Deborah was hospitalized. She was misdiagnosed and given antibiotics multiple times before doctors concluded she had valley fever. The fungus had already wreaked havoc in her body. Deborah lost her eyesight.

Her weight dropped from around pounds to about 70 pounds. Deborah was only in her mid-twenties when she died from valley fever. Since , more than 3, people have died. Many in the general public and even in the medical community know very little about the illness.

The lack of knowledge can delay diagnosis and treatment. Suarez also visits with Dr. Royce Johnson, of Bakersfield, Calif. Johnson is one of the leading infectious disease experts on valley fever. Tune in for the full report. In the meantime, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are 10 things you should know about valley fever. Read the full list below. Valley fever is caused by a fungus that lives in the environment.

There are an estimated 1. Valley fever is a respiratory disease caused by a fungus called Coccidioides. Valley fever is becoming increasingly common, and it can be debilitating and costly.

Nearly three-quarters of valley fever patients miss work or school because of their illness, for an average of two weeks, and more than a third of patients need to receive care in the hospital. People get valley fever by breathing in the microscopic, airborne fungal spores. Sometimes, the number of people who get valley fever increases after there have been weather-related events that stir up more dust than usual, such as earthquakes or dust storms.

Symptoms of valley fever are usually similar to the flu. Approximately 40 percent of people who get the fungal infection do not show any symptoms. In the other 60 percent, valley fever can cause flu-like symptoms, including:. The symptoms of valley fever typically appear between one and three weeks after someone inhales the fungal spores.

This initial, acute illness can develop into a more serious disease, including chronic and disseminated coccidioidomycosis. The initial, or acute, form of coccidioidomycosis is often mild, with few or no symptoms. Signs and symptoms occur one to three weeks after exposure.

They tend to be similar to flu symptoms. Symptoms can range from minor to severe, including:. If you don't become ill or have symptoms from valley fever, you may only find out you've been infected later. You may find out when you have a positive skin or blood test or when small areas of residual infection in the lungs nodules show up on a routine chest X-ray.

The nodules typically don't cause problems, but they can look like cancer on X-rays. If you develop symptoms, especially severe ones, the course of the disease is highly variable. It can take months to fully recover. Fatigue and joint aches can last even longer.

The disease's severity depends on several factors, including your overall health and the number of fungus spores you inhale. If the initial coccidioidomycosis infection doesn't completely resolve, it may progress to a chronic form of pneumonia. This complication is most common in people with weakened immune systems. The most serious form of the disease, disseminated coccidioidomycosis, is uncommon.

It occurs when the infection spreads disseminates beyond the lungs to other parts of the body.