Coccidioides

Bruhn said she hadn’t been warned beforehand that Kern County and Buena Vista Lake are endemic for coccidioides — the fungus that causes the disease.

Valley fever is an infectious disease caused by the coccidioides fungus, which grows in the soil and dirt in some areas of California.

English said little attention has yet been paid to his group’s discovery on the site of the soil-dwelling fungus Coccidioides, which causes valley fever.

The disease is caused by two species of shapeshifting fungus in the genus Coccidioides, both of which flourish when exposed to moist springs and arid summers—like those in the San Joaquin Valley, where the fever got its name.

No one knows for sure whether wind is moving Coccidioides north or whether it has been there undisturbed until now.