Apart from warming our oceans and killing coral reefs, climate change can also affect the spread of diseases. Researchers say that there is a possibility for valley fever to expand its range of affected states and spread quicker.
“The range of valley fever is going to increase substantially,” said Morgan Gorris, a former UCI PhD student in Earth system science and lead author of the new study.
“We made projections out to the end of the 21st century, and our model predicts that valley fever will travel farther north throughout the western United States, especially in the rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains and throughout the Great Plains, and by that time, much of the western U.S. will be considered endemic.”
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