More than 20,000 attendees at the California Lightning in a Bottle music festival may have been exposed to a dangerous fungal illness.
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is investigating five cases of Valley fever that occurred among people who traveled through Kern County to attend the May 22-27 at Buena Vista Lake, near the city of Bakersfield.
So far, three people have been hospitalized, but additional cases linked to attendance at the festival are possible, authorities said to the Fox Weather channel, which first reported the story.
Valley fever symptoms include cough, fever, fatigue, difficulty breathing, and chest pain. There are about 200 deaths a year due to the disease. The disease is not contagious and can’t spread from human to human.
“Those are mostly people with severe immunocompromising illnesses underlying this infection,” said Dr. Brad Perkins, chief medical officer at Karius, a company that provides advanced diagnostics for infectious diseases. “It can be a devastating infection in those people. That’s pretty rare, fortunately.”
Lightning in a Bottle attendees share details about any illness on the CDPH Valley fever survey website.
The infectious disease is caused by the Coccidioides fungus that grows in the soil and dirt in some areas of California.
“While most people exposed to this fungus do not develop Valley fever, the fungus can infect the lungs and cause respiratory symptoms, including cough, difficulty breathing, fever, and tiredness or fatigue,” the CDPH reports.
Past Valley fever outbreaks have been linked to breathing in dust and dirt at outdoor events in certain parts of California where Valley fever is common.
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