Vaccine Developed by UArizona Researchers Could Prevent Valley Fever

Ron Medvescek, Arizona Daily Star

According to the CDC, nearly 10,000 cases of Valley Fever are reported in the United States each year, mostly from Arizona and California. Fungal geneticist Dr. Marc Orbach has developed a vaccine against the incurable and sometimes fatal respiratory disease. Dr. Orbach, a professor of genetics and plant sciences, achieved the feat by removing just one gene from the fungus that causes this disease, creating a mutant spore that appears unable to cause disease but able to protect from it.