Officials sound the alarm after music festival spawns spread of dangerous disease: 'Know the signs and symptoms'Months after a California music festival, concertgoers are coming down with valley fever.
What's happening?
The Lightning in a Bottle electronic dance music festival, held in Kern County from May 22-27, has left 19 people sick, with infections quadrupling over the last month, the Guardian reported on Sept. 5. Eight people have been hospitalized.
The illness is caused by inhaling the spores of a fungus endemic to the Southwest United States. Hotter and drier conditions over recent years have contributed to an increasing disease incidence in the state, per the newspaper.