Advocating for Coccidioidomycosis to Be a Reportable Disease Nationwide in the United States and Encouraging Disease Surveillance across North and South America

Morgan E Gorris; Karin Ardon-Dryer; Althea Campuzano; Laura R Castañón-Olivares; Thomas E Gill; Andrew Greene; Chiung-Yu Hung; Kimberly A Kaufeld; Mark Lacy; Edith Sánchez-Paredes

doi:10.3390/jof9010083

Advocating for Coccidioidomycosis to Be a Reportable Disease Nationwide in the United States and Encouraging Disease Surveillance across North and South America

J Fungi (Basel). 2023 Jan 5;9(1):83. doi: 10.3390/jof9010083.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Information Systems and Modeling, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
² Department of Geosciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA.
³ Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA.
⁴ Unidad de Micología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 04510, Mexico.
⁵ Environmental Science and Engineering Program, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.
⁶ Department of Earth, Environmental and Resource Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.
⁷ Statistical Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
⁸ Infectious Disease, Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, University of New Mexico Health, Albuquerque, NM 87106, USA.

Abstract

Coccidioidomycosis (Valley fever) has been a known health threat in the United States (US) since the 1930s, though not all states are currently required to report disease cases. Texas, one of the non-reporting states, is an example of where both historical and contemporary scientific evidence define the region as endemic, but we don't know disease incidence in the state. Mandating coccidioidomycosis as a reportable disease across more US states would increase disease awareness, improve clinical outcomes, and help antifungal drug and vaccine development. It would also increase our understanding of where the disease is endemic and the relationships between environmental conditions and disease cases. This is true for other nations in North and South America that are also likely endemic for coccidioidomycosis, especially Mexico. This commentary advocates for US state and territory epidemiologists to define coccidioidomycosis as a reportable disease and encourages disease surveillance in other endemic regions across North and South America in order to protect human health and reduce disease burden.

Keywords: Coccidioides; coccidioidomycosis; public health; surveillance.

Abstract

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