Diseases beginning with V
U.S.-focused summaries with current official guidance links. For a diagnosis, personal vaccine schedule, pregnancy advice, or urgent symptoms, speak with a qualified clinician.
Valley Fever
No vaccine availableDisease
A lung infection, also called coccidioidomycosis, caused by breathing fungal spores from soil in parts of the United States.
Symptoms
Many infections cause no illness. Symptoms can include fatigue, cough, fever, shortness of breath, headache, night sweats, muscle or joint aches, chest pain, and rash.
Typical duration
Symptoms usually begin 1 to 3 weeks after exposure. Mild illness may improve without medicine over weeks to a few months; fatigue, chronic lung disease, or disseminated disease can last much longer.
How serious is it?
A minority develop chronic lung problems or infection that spreads to skin, bones, joints, or the brain. Severe disease is more likely in certain immune, pregnancy, age, diabetes, and ancestry-related risk groups.
Treatment & management
Many mild infections resolve without antifungal medicine. Higher-risk, severe, chronic, or disseminated infections are treated with antifungals such as fluconazole; meningitis generally requires lifelong therapy.
Vaccine: who and when?
No vaccine is licensed to prevent Valley fever. Vaccine research is ongoing.
Last reviewed against official U.S. sources: September 5, 2026. This page provides general education, not medical advice.
More conditions in this letter
Explore additional source-led condition guides published in this A-Z library.
- Varicose VeinsLearn why varicose veins form, which symptoms need evaluation, how testing works, and how compression and procedures are selected.
- Vascular DementiaLearn how vascular brain injury can affect thinking, why symptoms vary, how diagnosis is approached, and what ongoing support may involve.
- VitiligoLearn how vitiligo changes skin pigment, how clinicians distinguish it from look-alikes, and how treatment and sun protection are individualized.