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4d ago

California’s Valley Fever Cases Surge Toward New Record in 2025

Health officials say dust-driven spore dispersal from weather extremes explains rising infection rates despite underreported cases.

Farmlands in Contra Costa County in August 2023. The county has had the most cases of valley fever in the Bay Area over the first seven months of 2025.
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Overview

  • Through July 2025, California recorded 6,761 Valley fever cases, placing the state on track to exceed 2024’s record of nearly 12,500 infections.
  • Monterey County has seen a dramatic increase from 47 cases in 2023 to 348 so far this year, and other northern Central Valley and Central Coast counties are reporting similar surges.
  • UC Berkeley and NIH researchers link the upward trend to cycles of drought, wet winters, dry summers, dust storms and soil disturbances that mobilize Coccidioides spores.
  • The CDC warns that overlapping flu and COVID-like symptoms and diagnostic gaps mean many infections go unrecognized and uncounted.
  • The California Department of Public Health urges clinicians and the public to watch for persistent respiratory symptoms, use N95 masks, reduce dust exposure and wet soil before digging.