A Survey of Coccidioidomycosis at Camp Roberts, California

In the early months of the development of Camp Roberts, among the many cases of acute respiratory illness receiving treatment at the Station Hospital, 2 cases of primary coccidioidomycosis were discovered. Camp Roberts lies on the western slope of the Coast Range Mountains of California, separated from the San Joaquin Valley by that range, and since this area had not previously been known to harbor the disease as an endemic focus a survey was undertaken to determine the extent of the disease locally, the results of which survey constitute the body of this report. INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL DATA Dr. Emmet Rixford of San Francisco reported in 18941a case of malignant ulcer of the skin caused by an agent which he and Gilchrist2named Coccidioides. This was the first report of this disease entity in the American literature, though the same disease had apparently been described in 1892