My mom died from a fast-rising fungus that spread to her brain… what I wish we knew that could’ve saved her life

Roselia Aguirre was working as a school cafeteria worker when she suddenly came down with a mysterious cough and debilitating headaches. 

The 52-year-old El Paso, Texas resident who taught dances to children at her local church was left with pain so severe she couldn’t work, according to her daughter, Aide Moreno. 

During the summer of 2015, Roselia also began having strokes that caused half her face to droop. For a year, she went to multiple doctors to try and find a cause but would only be prescribed pain medications. 

Eventually, she became so sick she had to be hospitalized and underwent brain surgery to remove excess fluid and was then put into a coma to allow her brain to heal. 

Still left without answers from her doctors, a weekend physician who saw Roselia’s condition suspected she was suffering from something far more dangerous and began testing her brain fluid. 

It was then doctors and her family learned Roselia had coccidioidomycosis, a fungal infection more commonly known as Valley fever.  

The family fear she caught the fungus during one of Texas’ notorious dust storms. The fungus is spread through tiny spores in the ground that may be whipped up by harsh winds. 

Weakened by brain damage and unable to walk on her own after coming out of the coma, Roselia began attending physical therapy and taking antifungal medications.

However, the treatments couldn’t fight the infection and she died on August 24, 2016 from a heart attack. Her death certificate attributed the cause to Valley fever. 

Valley Fever – which got its name because a majority of cases are found in Arizona and California – is a deadly lung infection that kills one in 100 people who contract it.

On average, there were approximately 200 coccidioidomycosis-associated deaths each year from 1999 to 2021.

Valley fever is caused by the fungus coccidioides, which is swept up into the air when soil contaminated with the fungus is disturbed by wind or digging. 

States usually report a total of 10,000 to 20,000 cases of Valley fever yearly. In 2024, Arizona – where most cases emerge – reported a total of 11,801 confirmed and probable cases of Valley fever, higher than last year’s total count of 10,990.

When humans or animals breathe in the spores, they travel through the respiratory tract and into the lungs where they reproduce and spread to other parts of the body, including the brain, skin and liver through the bloodstream. 

If it infects the membranes and fluid around the brain and cause life-threatening meningitis. 

The disease, for which there is currently no preventative vaccine, can often be missed by doctors or misdiagnosed as pneumonia as it presents with similar symptoms such as fatigue, cough, fever, aching muscles and breathlessness. 

Other symptoms include blurry vision, cognitive decline, hearing changes, night sweats, joint aches and a red rash, usually on the legs but occasionally on the chest, arms and back.

There is no current cure and patients are given treatments to manage symptoms. 

Evidence suggests the fungus that causes Valley fever lives in the soil of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, parts of Mexico, Central America and South America.

Since Texas is one of the states that does not require reporting and the number of Valley fever incidents across the area remain unknown, nobody in Roselia’s family had ever heard about the disease. 

Talking about her mother’s final days, Aide told El Paso Matters: ‘My mom doesn’t play around like this. 

‘What damaged my mom more was we didn’t know what it was, so we didn’t know how to treat it. 

‘Mom felt like she was going crazy, Now I want everyone to know it doesn’t just happen to people living in California, Nevada, Arizona. It’s present [in Texas], too.’

According to Dr Armando Meza, an infectious disease physician at Texas Tech Health, El Paso, who was not involved in Roselia’s care, over half of the people suffering from Valley fever do not show clear symptoms and usually only have a cough and fever, like many other common respiratory illnesses. 

He explained: ‘Sometimes it’s not easy to make a diagnosis because doctors just think they have simple pneumonia and give antibiotics, but those patients will not get better, they will get worse.’

There is no proven cure for Valley Fever and patients are usually prescribed rest and given therapies to manage symptoms. Mild cases also tend to clear up on their own. 

Doctors may prescribe antifungal medications, but there is no evidence from clinical trials that show these treatments are effective – and antifungal drugs come with the potential for serious side effects.

In recent years, El Paso has been experiencing frequent dust storms that have left residents battered. 

While the region used to see about two to three dust days in the early months of the year, it has already recorded eight days of blowing dust this March alone. 

The county was placed under a Weather Authority Alert last week after winds blew winds from 35 to 45 mph and gusts reached 65 mph. 

Experts have since warned locals that these dust storms are much worse than previous years and can negatively impact their physical health as airborne particles can cause numerous illnesses including Valley Fever. 

Multiple local and federal agencies have asked El Paso residents to stay indoors and avoid traveling during these storms.  

Since her mother’s death, Aide said she tries to ask every doctor and nurse practitioner she meets if they have heard of Valley fever.

She claims that probably two out of three experts she encounters do not know about the disease. 

Aide said: ‘It’s just to spread awareness. Maybe somebody else doesn’t have to go through what my mom did, all the experimenting, wondering if it’s this or that. Maybe they can figure it out faster.’