‘It took everything’: the disease that can be contracted by breathing California’s air

Valley fever is increasing in California’s Central Valley as the climate crisis creates a parched landscape where the fungus that causes the disease thrives. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

The illness that would change Rob Purdie’s life started with a headache, a terrible pain that began around New Year’s 2012 and stayed for months.

It was only after several trips to urgent care facilities, multiple doctors and incorrect diagnoses – everything from sinus infections to cluster headaches – he learned what was wrong with him.