coccidioidomycosis

noun

coc·​cid·​i·​oi·​do·​my·​co·​sis (ˌ)käk-ˌsi-dē-ˌȯi-dō-(ˌ)mī-ˈkō-səs 

: a disease especially of humans and domestic animals that is caused by inhalation of spores from either of two fungi (Coccidioides immitis or C. posadasii) found in dry soils of the southwestern U.S., Mexico, and Central America and that may be asymptomatic or present as a mild to serious flu-like illness marked chiefly by fever, cough, sore throat, headache, fatigue, and pneumonia but sometimes becoming disseminated beyond the lungs especially to the skin, bones, joints, and meninges resulting in painful lesions, swollen joints, or meningitis

called also cocci, San Joaquin fever, San Joaquin valley fever, valley fever

Examples of coccidioidomycosis in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

According to state health officials, 19 others were diagnosed with coccidioidomycosis in the weeks and months following the event. —Susanne Rust, Los Angeles Times, 2 Oct. 2024

Valley fever, also known as coccidioidomycosis, is not contagious and cannot spread person-to-person. —Carma Hassan, CNN, 6 Sep. 2024

The flooding caused by intensifying winter rainstorms in California is helping to spread a deadly fungal disease called coccidioidomycosis, or valley fever. —Zoya Teirstein, WIRED, 17 Feb. 2024

In California, diagnosis of coccidioidomycosis (also called Valley fever) rose 800 percent between 2000 and 2018. —Maryn McKenna, WIRED, 25 Aug. 2023

This probably was coccidioidomycosis. —Lisa Sanders, M.d., New York Times, 2 Nov. 2022

If inhaled, the organisms could end up in the lungs and cause a pneumonia called, variously, coccidioidomycosis or desert rheumatism or Valley fever. —Lisa Sanders, M.d., New York Times, 2 Nov. 2022

Blastomycosis was a much more serious disease than coccidioidomycosis, requiring significantly longer treatment. —Lisa Sanders, M.d., New York Times, 2 Nov. 2022

Valley fever is a fungal infection, known by its scientific name, coccidioidomycosis. —Stephanie Innes, The Arizona Republic, 29 Apr. 2022

Word History

Etymology

New Latin, from Coccidioides, genus of fungi (from coccidium) + mycosis

First Known Use

1937, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

coccidioidomycosis

noun

coc·​cid·​i·​oi·​do·​my·​co·​sis (ˌ)käk-ˌsid-ē-ˌȯid-ō-(ˌ)mī-ˈkō-səs 

variants also coccidiomycosis

(ˌ)käk-ˌsid-ē-ō-(ˌ)mī-ˈkō-səs 

plural coccidioidomycoses -ˌsēz 

: a disease of humans and domestic animals that is caused by inhalation of arthroconidia from either of two fungi of the genus Coccidioides (Coccidioides immitis and C. posadasii) found in dry soils of the southwestern U.S., Mexico, and Central America and that may be asymptomatic or present as a mild to serious flu-like illness marked chiefly by fever, cough, sore throat, headache, fatigue, and pneumonia but sometimes becoming disseminated beyond the lungs especially to the skin, bones, joints, and meninges resulting in painful lesions, swollen joints, or meningitis

Early symptoms of the disease, which is clinically known as coccidioidomycosis, mimic the flu, with symptoms that include a cough, lethargy, and fever, most of those who become infected recover with little or no treatment and are subsequently immune. In about 2 percent to 3 percent of the cases, the disease spreads from the lungs and can attack the bones, liver, spleen, and skin.

—Jesse McKinley, The Boston Globe

Coccidioidomycosis is transmitted through inhalation of the sporelike arthroconidia, which is easily aerosolized when dry soil is disturbed. In Arizona, the peak incidence of disease occurs during the hot, dry summer months and again in October when a dry spell follows late-summer rains.

—William A. Kormos et al., The New England Journal of Medicine

called also cocci, San Joaquin fever, San Joaquin valley fever, valley fever