Coccidioidomycosis Hospitalizations on the Rise

Coccidioidomycosis, or Valley fever, is a frequent fungal infection in the western United States, particularly in California’s San Joaquin Valley and Arizona’s south-central region. While many cases are self-limited, a small number result in severe pulmonary or extrathoracic illness requiring hospitalization. Rates of hospitalization associated with coccidioidomycosis have not been recently examined. In this study, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used discharge codes from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project National Inpatient Sample (HCUP NIS) to identify cases from 2016 through 2021.