In retrospect, Smith played a major role in both medical research and raising awareness about coccidioidomycosis, especially when he became dean of the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley in 1951. Coccidioides immitis was considered by the United States during the 1950s and 1960s as a potential biological weapon. The strain selected for investigation was designated with the military symbol OC, and initial expectations were for its deployment as a human incapacitant. Medical research suggested that OC might have had some lethal effects on the populace, and Coccidioides immitis started to be classified by the authorities as a threat to public health. However, Coccidioides immitis was never weaponized to the publics knowledge, and most of the military research in the mid-1960s was concentrated on developing a human vaccine. Currently, it is not on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or Centers for Disease Control and Preventions list of select agents and toxins. In 2002, Coccidioides posadasii was identified as genetically distinct from Coccidioides immitis despite their morphologic similarities and can also cause coccidioidomycosis. Research
As of 2013, there is no vaccine available to prevent infection with  Coccidioides immitis or Coccidioides posadasii, but efforts to develop such a vaccine are underway. Other animals
Valley fever is not contagious. In dogs, the most common symptom of coccidioidomycosis is a chronic cough, which can be dry or moist. Other symptoms include fever (in approximately 50% of cases), weight loss, anorexia, lethargy, and depression.
It was reported in 2022 that valley fever had been increasing in Californias Central Valley for years (1,000 cases in Kern county in 2014, 3,000 in 2021); experts said that cases could rise across the American west as the climate crisis makes the landscape drier and hotter. Classification
After Coccidioides infection, coccidioidomycosis begins with Valley fever, which is its initial acute form. Valley fever may progress to the chronic form and then to disseminated coccidioidomycosis. Therefore, coccidioidomycosis may be divided into the following types:
Acute coccidioidomycosis, sometimes described in literature as primary pulmonary coccidioidomycosis
Chronic coccidioidomycosis
Disseminated coccidioidomycosis, which includes primary cutaneous coccidioidomycosisValley fever is not a contagious disease. Signs and symptoms
An estimated 60% of people infected with the fungi responsible for coccidioidomycosis have minimal to no symptoms, while 40% will have a range of possible clinical symptoms. Of those who do develop symptoms, the primary infection is most often respiratory, with symptoms resembling bronchitis or pneumonia that resolve over a matter of a few weeks. In endemic regions, coccidioidomycosis is responsible for 20% of cases of community-acquired pneumonia. Notable coccidioidomycosis signs and symptoms include a profound feeling of tiredness, loss of smell and taste, fever, cough, headaches, rash, muscle pain, and joint pain. Fatigue can persist for many months after initial infection. The classic triad of coccidioidomycosis known as "desert rheumatism" includes the combination of fever, joint pains, and erythema nodosum.A minority (3–5%) of infected individuals do not recover from the initial acute infection and develop a chronic infection.