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.
Keywords: Coccidioides; Coccidioidomycosis; Diagnostic PCR; Dust; Earthquake; Mojave Desert; Soil.