Federal health officials are investigating the high number of valley fever cases in Arizona, particularly the northwest Phoenix area, including the Sun Cities and Surprise.
"We in Arizona ... have 60 percent of all the reported valley-fever cases in the U.S." said Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine, deputy epidemiologist for the state Department of Health Services.
Valley fever is a respiratory disease.
Symptoms include fever, chest pain and coughing.
It can be fatal, especially for those with a compromised immune system.
The fungus that causes valley fever grows in the top layer of soil in desert regions and becomes airborne when the earth is disturbed by digging or dust storms.
A team of three epidemiologists and a veterinary student from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention visited the Phoenix-area in November.
They collected lab and hospital data and leftover blood from a blood bank and a commercial laboratory for testing, Sunenshine said.
The CDC study was expected to take at least six months to test the more than 1,500 blood samples.
