Abstract
Early July 2019, two major earthquakes occurred in the Mojave Desert of California near the city of Ridgecrest and the community of Trona and generated a large dust plume that lingered for days. The earthquakes hit an area endemic for Coccidioides, a soil-borne fungal pathogen that can become airborne when soil is disturbed and typically manifests as a pulmonary disease when inhaled. This study is the first to confirm the presence of Coccidioides in soils near Trona using a nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) approach. First responders to earthquake events, the public, and physicians in the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert should be informed about the risk of pathogen exposure during and after the time of an earthquake, since there are many fault lines in addition to the large San Andreas Fault and future earthquakes in this region are expected to occur.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Chancellor’s Office of the California State University (CSU) and the National Science Foundation (Louis Stokes Alliance for Minorities (LSAMP) [CSU-LSAMP # HRD 1826490] and by private funds from A. Lauer and J. Bains.
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Differences in numbers of residents without health insurance, residents below the poverty line, and residents of African American descent for San Bernardino County and neighboring counties, compared to average numbers for the entire U.S. (U.S. Census Bureau 2018) (TIFF 906 kb)
10393_2020_1485_MOESM2_ESM.tif
Increase in coccidioidomycosis in San Bernardino County (A) compared to Kern County (B) between 2017–2019 (CDPH 2020) (TIFF 612 kb)
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Lauer, A., Lopez, J., Abarca, S. et al. Earthquake-Ridden Area in USA Contains Coccidioides, the Valley Fever Pathogen. EcoHealth 17, 248–254 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-020-01485-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-020-01485-w