We used real-time polymerase chain reaction and culture to demonstrate persistent colonization of soils by Coccidioides immitis, an agent of valley fever, in Washington State linked to recent human infections and located outside the endemic range. Whole-genome sequencing confirmed genetic identity between isolates from soil and one of the case-patients.
Keywords: Coccidioides; WGS typing; soil detection; valley fever.
Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2014. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.