Andrej Spec (opens in new tab), an associate professor of medicine and a specialist in fungal infections at the Washington University School of Medicine in St.
The team included data only from Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 and older, so it's not a complete picture of all the fungal infections in each state, the study authors noted.
In addition to histo, the team specifically looked for cases of blastomycosis, an infection caused by fungi in the genus Blastomyces, and valley fever or coccidioidomycosis, which is caused by fungi in the genus Coccidioides.This is a limitation of the study, as it doesn't account for travel-related exposures, the authors noted.
This is especially relevant because, depending on the infection, a person's symptoms may emerge weeks to months after they breathe in fungal spores, giving them plenty of time to hop state lines.
But regardless of its limitations, the study hints that these fungi lurk in far more states than experts once thought, and doctors should recognize the potential for these illnesses to crop up all across the country, the study authors concluded.Nicoletta Lanese is a staff writer for Live Science covering health and medicine, along with an assortment of biology, animal, environment and climate stories.Thank you for signing up to Live Science