Who is at the greatest risk for the worst Valley Fever infections?
Senior citizens and young children under five years old, people with immune disorders like HIV/AIDS, organ transplant recipients, diabetics, pregnant women, and some races (particularly blacks and Filipinos) have historically been known to have the worst cases. People working close to the soil (construction workers, gardeners, etc.) are also at a higher risk than the general population because they are likely to inhale many more spores of the fungus as the spores are being stirred up. However, it is important to repeat that ANYONE can have a severe or fatal infection no matter how healthy they are and even if they don’t have any risk factors. For example, a 2006 article in Clinical Infectious Diseases reviewed hospital data to show that 86.3% of child patients and 87.5% of adult patients hospitalized with Valley Fever had healthy immune systems (Chu JH, Feudtner C, Heydon K, Walsh TJ, Zaoutis TE. Hospitalizations for endemic mycoses: a population-based national study. Clin Infect Dis.
