ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —

Valley fever (coccidioidomycosis) is a disease commonly associated with exposure to dust, and people contract the disease when they inhale soil-dwelling fungi that infect the lungs.

According to a comprehensive study done in New Mexico, researchers found that people in the state of New Mexico are likely among the most at-risk populations for the disease in the United States.

“We’ve known anecdotally for more than 80 years that Valley fever exists in New Mexico,” said Morgan Gorris, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist and corresponding author on the paper in the journal Pathogens. “But this is the first study to look at all the data — including reported cases, soil samples and rodent samples — to tell us that, yes, Valley fever is endemic to New Mexico.”

The r

See Full Page