Researchers are divided over whether rising cases of the fungal infection in the United States can be linked to dust storms.
. The authors of the new paper say the data set used in the 2021 analysis — the Storm Events Database, maintained by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — is known to contain errors, lacks certain information and uses a definition of ‘dust storm’ that is inconsistent with that used by most meteorological organizations. As a result, they say the jury is still out on the dust storm–Valley Fever connection.
Determining whether — and how — dust storms increase the risk of the disease is important, researchers say, because cases are on the rise, and it would help to prioritize effective disease-mitigation strategies.Of the roughly 20,000 cases of Valley Fever reported to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2019, the vast majority occurred in California and Arizona. Symptoms of the disease, which include fatigue, fever and cough, can last for a few weeks to months.
improvements to the database and data reporting going forward,” says Gordon Strassberg, storm-data programme manager at the National Weather Service, run by NOAA. “As we get more storm events, and as any database continues to gets larger, it can be challenging,” he says, “but we will continue to provide the best data we can.”
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